Botswana down in global rankings

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Friday November 2, 2007 00:00

 

This was revealed at the launch of the World Economic Forum (WEF)  2007/08 Global Competitiveness report by the Botswana National Productivity Centre in Gaborone on Wednesday.

The report showed that Botswana has slipped down the ranks to position 76 from 72 last year, out of a total of 131 countries sampled, way below Mauritius and South Africa in the same region.

The report is published by the Geneva-based WEF after factoring in about 100 executive opinion surveys from key stakeholders such as company CEOs in Botswana. Globally, the WEF consulted more than 10,000 top business leaders about the pros and cons of doing business in each of the 131countries included in the survey.

Its objective is to assess the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens, which in turn depends on how productively a country uses available resources. In coming up with the ranking, the WEF looks at a wide range of competitive factors, which include institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic performance, health and education and training.

During the presentation, BNPC senior consultant Dr Phumdzile Magagula-Thobokwe said Botswana's worst rankings were in terms of health and education, coming in at number 119 out of 131 countries. Other areas still lagging behind include market size, market efficiency and business sophistication.

However, the country fared well in the institutions pillar where issues such as legal framework, over-regulation, corruption and dishonesty were looked at.

'Although the rankings show that we have lost ground, it does not necessarily mean that the country has performed horribly,' Magagula-Thobokwe said.

'It could be that other countries such as Mauritius from SADC and Tunisia - which is the best-ranked African country - are improving at a much faster rate than us, hence the need to look at this as a motivator for us to peddle even much faster.' The Permanent Secretary Ministry of Industry and Trade Banny Molosiwa, who was the guest of hounor at the launch said that for the country to improve, there was need to change people's mindsets and start competing with the best performing markets in the world instead of taking comfort in the fact that Botswana was doing better than the worst. She emphasised the need to speed up diversification of the economy, as the country's over-reliance on non-renewable minerals was one of the factors that saw countries like Namibia being ranked better than Botswana.

'For Botswana to become more competitive, the economy has to be diversified as the reliance on minerals is considered a risk factor. My ministry is working around the clock to further this cause and attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into other areas of the economy. 'We are also re-visiting some of the legislative framework which are counter-productive; a good example of this is the setting up of the Competitions Commission, which is currently in the pipeline.

'However, all our efforts will be in vein if we do not improve our work ethic, an issue that has been dragging us behind for a long time now,' said Molosiwa.

Of the 131 countries surveyed, Tunisia came out the most competitive country in Africa   with South Africa becoming the only other African country in the top 50.

However, Botswana fared well against key African countries as it was ranked ahead of Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and Madagascar.

The report also cited the most problematic areas for doing business in Botswana. Topping the list was poor work ethics, followed by inefficient government bureaucracy, poor access to financing and an inadequately educated workforce.

The least problematic factors for doing business in Botswana included government stability, tax and foreign currency regulation, crime, and theft and corruption.

Overall, the US regained its crown as the most competitive economy this year after losing it to Switzerland last year.

Having dropped to sixth in the Global Competitiveness Index last year, the US pushed previous winner Switzerland into second place this time around.

WEF has been publishing this report since 1979. It  is widely cited  and used by many scholarly and peer-reviewed articles.