Botswana Tops African Competitiveness League

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

04 June 2004

Botswana has emerged as Africa’s most competitive nation in the third edition World Economic Forum Africa Competitiveness report released on the opening day of the Africa Economic Summit 2004 in Maputo, Mozambique.

“The Africa Competitiveness Report 2004 highlights the prospects for growth in the region and, more importantly, the obstacles to improving competitiveness in the region”, explained the Forum’s Chief Economist and Director of the Global Competitiveness Programme, Augusto Lopez-Claros.

“The Report is an invaluable tool for policy-makers, business strategists and other important stakeholders, as well as essential reading for all those with an interest in the region. This is the World Economic Forum’s 14th Africa Economic Summit and demonstrates our continuing commitment to the continent,” Lopez-Claros added.

One of the central elements of the Report, the Growth Competitiveness Index, is designed to measure the condition of an economy and its propensity to achieve sustained economic growth in the medium to long term. It comprises three main components: the Public Institutions Index, the Technology Index and the Macroeconomic Environment Index.

The Index is calculated from a variety of official statistics combined with responses to the World Economic Forum’s annual Executive Opinion Survey, which records the perceptions of national business leaders on the quality of the business environment of the country in which they operate.

Botswana’s top position in the Index results from the fact that the country achieved the highest scores with regard to the state of its public institutions and the condition of its macroeconomic environment.

However, Botswana’s overall Index score was dragged down slightly by a lower position in terms of technological readiness, ranked 4 out of 25.

Following Botswana in the top five of the Index were Tunisia, South Africa, Mauritius and Namibia.

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