BEIJING - Singapore has been ranked the most competitive economy in Asia for the second year running, according to a report released by the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual economic forum to be held in China's southern Hainan island next week.

The city state has claimed top spot for four out of the five years since 2011 that the annual report has been released with 2013 the only exception that Hong Kong pipped the Republic to the top spot.

Dr Wang Jun, a researcher at the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges, said at a press conference yesterday in Beijing that Singapore's efficient administrative services, convenient business environment and world-class infrastructure lifted it to its first placing among the 37 Asian economies surveyed.

The other Asian tigers - Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan - took second, third, and fourth placing while China came in ninth, unchanged from its ranking last year.

The report noted that as the Chinese government launches a new round of reform and opening up and enhances its legal system, its business environment is expected to improve.