After four years, South Africa is once again one of the world’s top 50 (ranking 49th out of 140 countries) in terms of global competitiveness, the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Report for 2015/16 has indicated.
“Much of the progress can be attributed to a 16-place jump in one of our ‘efficiency enhancer’ pillars, Technological Readiness, where the country jumps from 66 to 50,” read the WEF report, released this week.
The report also said efficiency in the labour market had improved (107th – up from 113th in 2014), although it still presented large areas for concern, including key sub-indicators cooperation in labour-employer relations, flexibility of wage determination, hiring and firing practices and linkage between pay and productivity.
South Africa ranks third among its Brics counterparts, with China ranking 28th overall and the Russian Federation ranking just slightly above South Africa in the 45th spot. In sub-Saharan Africa only Mauritius (39) ranks ahead of SA.
Switzerland, Singapore and the United States took the first, second and third spots respectively.
