The African Competitiveness Report was released earlier this month preceding the official opening of the World Economic Forum on Africa held in Cape Town, June 10-12. Jointly produced by the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum, the report discusses the short- and long-term challenges facing African economies including the current global economic crisis, as well as the successes that have been registered in recent years and how they can be spread and deepened.
Two short-term policy priorities are identified: first, increasing access to finance through market-enabling policies by upgrading the necessary frameworks for sound, efficient and inclusive financial systems, and second, keeping markets open to trade by resisting political pressures to erect trade barriers. The three long-term policy imperatives include upgrading the continent's infrastructure in the energy and transportation sectors that serve as bottlenecks to increased productivity and competitiveness; greatly improving the educational and healthcare systems to facilitate firms to move up the value chain and promote economic development in generfal; and promoting more examples of good governance and strong and visionary leadership to consolidate Africa's institutional infrastructure conducive for business to thrive.
The report seeks to assess the competitiveness of African economies and the results are intriguing. The top ten countries in terms of their competitiveness are, in descending order: Tunisia, South Africa, Botswana, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Egypt, Gambia, Kenya, and Nigeria. Bu Tunisia only ranks 36th globally in the competitiveness index.
The world is awash with rankings and Africa is inundated with policy prescriptions from all and sundry. In fact, there is probably no other continent that attracts advice from even relatively ignorant observers. Just witness the role of ill-educated celebrities pontificating about Africa in a way they would be laughed at if they did the same with regard to Europe, Asia, or even Latin America.
But the value of reports such as this is that they do provide important snapshots of the developmental challenges facing the continent and the progress that is being made. This report is useful to those who make policies for and study and comment on Africa seriously. PT Zeleza, Editor, The Zeleza Post.
From The Preface of the Report
The Africa Competitiveness Report 2009 (ACR) is the second joint report of our three organizations. It arrives against the backdrop of the deepest global economic slowdown in generations.
In Africa, impressive growth rates and increasing levels of FDI supported an economic resurgence over the past decade: between 2001 and 2008, Africa experienced an average annual growth rate of 5.9 percent in gross domestic product (GDP). But the global crisis has raised questions about whether this growth performance can be sustained. African economies are less linked to global financial markets than other parts of the world, but the region has not been spared from the fall-out of the global crisis. For 2009, GDP growth for the region is expected to be below 3 percent.This growth deceleration jeopardizes the progress Africans have made in recent years in economic development, in policy and institutional reform, and, in particular, in overcoming poverty.
The ACR highlights the areas where urgent policy action and investment are needed to ensure that Africa can best ride out this crisis and continue to grow for the future.The Report leverages the knowledge and expertise within the African Development Bank, the World Bank Group, and the World Economic Forum to present a unified vision and a mapping of the policy challenges that countries on the continent may address. It is intended as a tool for African decision makers from private, public, and political circles to measure the business climate potential for sustainable growth and prosperity.
As such, the ACR should stimulate private-public dialogue on the issues at stake.The private sector can play a vital role in the process of reform.As essential stakeholders, businesses can support and advocate for reforms that enhance competitiveness and initiatives that create jobs. For their part, governments will want to emphasize a sound business climate as a catalyst for long-term growth and prosperity.
This year's ACR examines many aspects of Africa's business environment, with a focus on boosting prosperity across the region.The report includes assessments of the competitiveness and costs of doing business on the continent; timely analyses of the depth and sophistication of the region's financial markets; effective measures taken by the relatively smaller economies on the continent to promote their competitiveness; and the extent to which African countries have put in place measures that facilitate the free flow of trade over their borders. In its final sections, the ACR includes detailed competitiveness and investment climate profiles for each of the countries included in the Report.
We cannot allow today's crisis to reverse the progress that Africans have already made. Instead, we must seize this opportunity to support reform and to help Africa improve its competitiveness and growth prospects. In today's interconnected world, Africa's prosperity is important to all of us, both as a source of global growth and to promote the sustainability of globalization.
