SA climbs competitiveness index
14 November 2002
South Africa climbed two places to 32nd out of 80 countries in the World Economic Forum’s latest competitiveness index, boosted by its performance in the technology rankings, where it jumped eight places from 46 to 38.
The Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2002-2003, released this week, measures the potential of a country to generate sustained economic growth. The US reclaimed top position this year, swopping places with last year’s winner, Finland.
The report combines publicly available data with a survey of perceptions of business leaders operating in each country. Over 4 800 business leaders worldwide participated in this year’s survey.
Overall, South Africa was the highest-ranked African country – followed closely by Tunisia in 34th and Botswana in 41st place – beating 48 countries including China, Czech Republic, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, Poland and Russia.
South Africa’s improvement in the technology rankings was
based on a number of advantages, including the country’s high use of foreign technology licences – reflecting aggression in adoption of new technology – its overall technological sophistication, and innovations by South African companies.
Negative factors included relatively low tertiary education enrolment, number of telephone lines and connections to the Internet.
Apart from technology, South Africa overall competitiveness ranking was boosted by a number of factors, including the sound state of the government’s finances, a highly competitive exchange rate, judicial independence and protection of property rights.
Negatives included a low savings rate, relatively high inflation, and difficulty in obtaining credit for most of the population.
For the Forum's competitiveness profile of South Africa, click here.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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