Botswana Remains Africa's Most Competitve Economy

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

05 November 2003

Botswana has once again surpassed all other African economies according to the latest Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum this week.

Input to the survey is contributed exclusively by leading business executives and entrepreneurs whose current perceptions of the business environment in which they work are captured in their responses to a comprehensive and scientifically constructed questionnaire.

By participating, respondents are also provided with the opportunity to identify key obstacles to economic growth in their own countries and thus contribute to assessing the quality of the business environment in the countries where their companies operate.

In the current survey, Botswana was ranked 36th in the Growth Competitive Index which measured conditions in 102 countries. Notably, this places Botswana above neighboring South Africa, and higher than many European nations including Italy.

Meanwhile, Finland topped the table as the world’s most competitive economy, above the United States, Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan and Singapore.

The Southern African state has scored consistently well down the years in such economic surveys, and the country was ranked the highest in Africa in Transparency International’s 2003 Corruption Perceptions Index, once again ranking above the likes of South Africa, Italy, Brazil and Greece.

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