South Africa rises seven places from 56 to 49 out of 140 countries according to the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Index. (Image: WEF)
Johannesburg, Wednesday 30 September 2015 – Brand South Africa today welcomed the 2015/16 results of the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Index which sees South Africa rise seven places from 56 to 49 of 140 countries.
Speaking about South Africa’s significantly improved performance in the Global Competitiveness Index, Brand South Africa’s CEO Kingsley Makhubela said, “Building a country’s competitiveness is a collective endevour involving the collaboration of government, business and civil society. Ultimately it involves all South Africans to coalesce around this national objective.”
“The results of the 2015/16 Global Competitiveness Index shows that South Africa has made significant improvements towards ensuring we are a globally competitive destination. The report resonates with our own assessment that we must work towards strengthening, amongst others, the education and health sectors to ensure our sustained competitiveness. The National Development Plan outlines the steps we need to take to achieve this.”
“We thank all South Africans for your contribution to building South Africa’s competitiveness and look forward to further improvements in the next year,” concluded Mr Makhubela.
South Africa’s achievements in the 2015/16 Global Competitiveness Index
|
Pillar |
Overall 2015/16 |
2014/15 |
|
Pillar 1: Institutions |
38 |
36 |
|
Pillar 2: Infrastructure |
68 |
60 |
|
Pillar 3: Macroeconomic environment |
85 |
89 |
|
Pillar 4: Health and primary education |
126 |
132 |
|
Pillar 5: Higher education and training |
83 |
86 |
|
Pillar 6: Goods market efficiency |
38 |
32 |
|
Pillar 7: Labour market efficiency |
107 |
113 |
|
Pillar 8: Financial market development |
12 |
7 |
|
Pillar 9: Technological readiness |
50 |
66 |
|
Pillar 10: Market size |
29 |
25 |
|
Pillar 11: Business sophistication |
33 |
31 |
|
Pillar 12: Innovation |
38 |
43 |
South Africa’s biggest improvements come in the areas of: health and primary education (up 6 places), labour market efficiency (up 6 places), technological readiness (up 16 places), and innovation (up 5 places).
South Africa has also improved in the areas of: macro-economic environment (up 4 places), higher education and training (up 3 places), and business sophistication (up 2 places).
South Africa has dropped in the area of infrastructure (down 8 places), institutions (down 2 places), goods market efficiency (down 6 places), financial market development (down 5 places) and market size (down 4 places).
For more on the 2015/16 WEF Global Competitiveness Index, see the WEF site.
