South Africa has leapt seven places, becoming 49th out of 140 countries following the release of the 2015/16 results of the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Competitiveness Index.
South Africa’s biggest improvements came in the areas of infrastructure (up 8 places), health and primary education (up 6 places), labour market efficiency (up 6 places), technological readiness (up 16 places), and innovation (up 5 places).
The country 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).
“Building a country’s competitiveness is a collective endeavour involving the collaboration of government, business and civil society. Ultimately it involves all South Africans to coalesce around this national objective,” Brand South Africa’s CEO Kingsley Makhubela said of the improved performance.
“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.”
Meanwhile, there were some challenges in the area of institutions (down 2 places), goods market efficiency (down 6 places), financial market development (down 5 places) an
