Turns out we are ranked 83rd out of 134 countries globally in terms of oureconomic competitivenes according to the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2008/9 released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

That's one place above Egypt (81) and one below El Salvador (79). It's also better than countries such as Argentina (88), Ghana (102), Zambia (112), Tanzania (113), Uganda (128) and the second lowest ranked Zimbabwe (133). The Chad is the lowest ranked country at 134.

The top ten countries were:

1. US
2. Switzerland
3. Denmark
4. Sweden
5. Singapore
6. Finland
7. Germany
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Canada

I wonder how and when these rankings will change following the financial crisis sweeping our globe.

In 2007/8 we were ranked 89th, so that's an improvement. The most problematic factors for doing business in Namibia were listed as (in percent of responses):

1. Inadequately educated workforce: 19.4
2. Restrictive labor regulations:15.1
3. Poor work ethic in national labor force: 13.6
4. Inefficient government bureaucracy:12.7
5. Inflation: 6.5
6. Access to financing: 6.4
7. Tax rates: 6.4
8. Corruption:5.4
9. Crime and theft: 4.9
10. Inadequate supply of infrastructure: 4.2
11. Poor public health: 2.2
12. Tax regulations: 2.0
13. Foreign currency regulations: 1.1
14. Policy instability: 0.2
15. Government instability/coups: 0.0

That makes for depressing reading because employers have now been saying for years that the Government needs to relax the very restrictive labour regulations and allow them to hire foreign experts and skilled labour. It does appear this message is falling on deaf ears. What is very clear is that the closed and protected labour market is not only hurting our competitiveness, but also our potential for development. Government needs to seriously its policies in this regard. It is not tenable in an internaitonal environment where talented and skilled people are highly mobile.

The fact that poor work ethic is also indicated as highly problematic means that we are - well - perceived to be not the most hard-working nation on earth, and consequently neither the most competitive or the most productive. In terms of innovation we are doing badly (111th), and health and primary education too (118th).

But it's not all bad news. We are ranked 33rd out of 134 in terms of Infrastructure, and 42nd in terms of basic requirements. As far as macroeconomic stabilities goes we are doing quite well and are rated 27th out of 134. That's better than South Africa, which was scored 63rd in this category.

South Africa was ranked 45th globally in terms of its economic competitiveness, and has topped the rankings for sub-Saharan Africa.

Attached is the full report and the full rankings. Very interesting indeed.

Attached Files

	Rankings.pdf (210.1 KB, 0 views)
	Namibia.pdf (424.5 KB, 1 views)

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