Namibia ranked 5th on WEF Africa Competitiveness Report

NAMIBIA has been ranked fifth on the Growth Competitiveness Index Results in the 2004 World Economic Forum Africa Competitiveness Report, falling behind Botswana, Tunisia, South Africa and Mauritius who are numbers one to four respectively.

Behind Namibia and also in the top 10 are Gambia, Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania and Ghana. The rankings were part of the report released at the three-day Africa Economic Summit, which ends in Maputo, Mozambique today.The Africa Competitiveness Report 2004 – the third in the series – highlights the prospects for growth, obstacles to improving competitiveness and the need to accelerate the pace of economic change.Analysis of over 100 indicators reveals regional trends and detailed country profiles show the performance of 25 African economies.Official economic and social statistics, the indicators used in the report, offer qualitative data on issues such as corruption, the impact on business of HIV-AIDS, infrastructure and access to financing.The report also offers essays from prominent academics and development experts on a variety of issues relevant to Africa’s development agenda.WEF’s chief economist and director of the Global Competitiveness Programme, Augusto Lopez-Carlos said the Africa Economic Summit in Mozambique was a platform for business, political and society leaders to address the development challenges facing the continent, adding that improving Africa’s growth performance is critical to its development agenda.According to the WEF, while the political landscape in most of sub-Saharan Africa has significantly improved in recent years, a renaissance of Africa’s economy has yet to take place.”African countries have not yet succeeded in laying a foundation of macroeconomic stability and a variety of structural and institutional rigidities have hampered growth performance.Indeed, it is difficult to point to a single group of African economies that have experienced high, sustained per capita income growth,” says Lopez-Carlos.Africa’s relatively poor growth performance has been fully reflected in the competitiveness indicators developed by the WEF where African countries do not, on the whole, score well, notes Lopez-Carlos.The report analyses some of the key challenges confronting policy makers in the region, whether in the area of macroeconomic management or in terms of the need to strengthen the quality of public sector institutions which must underpin economic reforms.The report also includes a number of analytical articles that address a broad range of issues at the heart of the debate on how to improve the quality of life for Africa’s citizens: from finding better ways to cope with HIV-AIDS, which continues to exact a heavy toll, to questions of infrastructure, trade, governance, and institution building.”There is no alternative to a significant acceleration in the pace of economic reforms if the continent is to fulfil its great potential”, notes Lopez-Carlos.Goals of the report are to focus attention of investment and business leaders on the region – there are success stories in Africa that are seldom reported; depict strengths and weaknesses of national business environments; be a tool for policy-makers to identify and address obstacles to growth; reveal obstacles to African competitiveness in an increasingly integrated and knowledge-based global economy; establish a process whereby governments, business leaders and other stakeholders can evaluate progress on a continual basis.The rankings were part of the report released at the three-day Africa Economic Summit, which ends in Maputo, Mozambique today.The Africa Competitiveness Report 2004 – the third in the series – highlights the prospects for growth, obstacles to improving competitiveness and the need to accelerate the pace of economic change.Analysis of over 100 indicators reveals regional trends and detailed country profiles show the performance of 25 African economies.Official economic and social statistics, the indicators used in the report, offer qualitative data on issues such as corruption, the impact on business of HIV-AIDS, infrastructure and access to financing.The report also offers essays from prominent academics and development experts on a variety of issues relevant to Africa’s development agenda.WEF’s chief economist and director of the Global Competitiveness Programme, Augusto Lopez-Carlos said the Africa Economic Summit in Mozambique was a platform for business, political and society leaders to address the development challenges facing the continent, adding that improving Africa’s growth performance is critical to its development agenda.According to the WEF, while the political landscape in most of sub-Saharan Africa has significantly improved in recent years, a renaissance of Africa’s economy has yet to take place.”African countries have not yet succeeded in laying a foundation of macroeconomic stability and a variety of structural and institutional rigidities have hampered growth performance.Indeed, it is difficult to point to a single group of African economies that have experienced high, sustained per capita income growth,” says Lopez-Carlos.Africa’s relatively poor growth performance has been fully reflected in the competitiveness indicators developed by the WEF where African countries do not, on the whole, score well, notes Lopez-Carlos.The report analyses some of the key challenges confronting policy makers in the region, whether in the area of macroeconomic management or in terms of the need to strengthen the quality of public sector institutions which must underpin economic reforms.The report also includes a number of analytical articles that address a broad range of issues at the heart of the debate on how to improve the quality of life for Africa’s citizens: from finding better ways to cope with HIV-AIDS, which continues to exact a heavy toll, to questions of infrastructure, trade, governance, and institution building.”There is no alternative to a significant acceleration in the pace of economic reforms if the continent is to fulfil its great potential”, notes Lopez-Carlos.Goals of the report are to focus attention of investment and business leaders on the region – there are success stories in Africa that are seldom reported; depict strengths and weaknesses of national business environments; be a tool for policy-makers to identify and address obstacles to growth; reveal obstacles to African competitiveness in an increasingly integrated and knowledge-based global economy; establish a process whereby governments, business leaders and other stakeholders can evaluate progress on a continual basis.