BRITAIN is either a wonderful place in which to do business or a shambolic country stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire. The view you take depends on which politician you listen to, or which set of statistics you believe.

It seems both statements are true. Gordon Brown can rightly stand proud and say that in the ranking of global competitiveness Britain has this year jumped four places, to 11th out of 104.

Our success in fostering growth puts us well ahead of our traditional rivals Germany and France, and we are perhaps even catching up the frontrunners Finland, the US and Sweden.

But there is another, less flattering side to this report, which comes from the World Economic Forum, suggesting Britain should be doing a lot better.

We are slated for the poor quality of our rail network, underperformance by state schools, government wastefulness and insufficient development of IT.

Apart from government waste, none of these issues was given much attention at the recent party conferences.

Another piece of research paints an even more dismal picture. A study funded by the Economic & Social Research Council says British productivity is as far behind the US, France and Germany as it was seven years ago when Labour came to power.

Here the output per hour worked is almost 40 per cent behind the Americans and 20 per cent behind the Germans and French.

Why? Mainly because their businesses invest more than British firms, and because their workers are more skilled than British workers.

American firms are said to be better managed. We invest less in research and development. We operate in a less competitive environment, which makes us less efficient.

Of course, we need government to create a modern transport infrastructure and an education system that produces employees with relevant skills.

We also need a much more efficient public sector whose low productivity is said to be a significant factor.

But Britain's business owners cannot escape the fact that the private sector also has a massive part to play in putting these matters right.

If we could encourage shareholders to worry more about long-term growth than short-term profit we might begin to make progress.

By Gordon Page, President of Dorset Business, the chamber of commerce & industry