South Africa second in African competitive ranking

South Africa might be reeling from junk status downgrades‚ but it could be worse. The country is still the second most competitive in Africa and in the Top 50 across the globe.

This was revealed during the release of the 2017 Africa Competitive Report at the World Economic Forum on Africa in Durban on Thursday. Mauritius was at the top of the pile when it came to competitive economies‚ with Rwanda‚ which is climbing fast up the rankings‚ in third.

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Globally‚ South Africa has climbed from 56th to 47th position in two years - a rise that‚ according to the World Bank's Barak Daniel Hoffman‚ is not insignificant. The competitive index looks at 12 "pillars"‚ ranging from strength of institutions through to quality of infrastructure‚ and from higher education and training through to innovation and labour market efficiency.

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Speaking to the SABC after the release of the report - which he co-authored - Hoffman said: "South Africa has climbed nine places since 2015…and is the current number one performer in Africa four pillars. It is top in financial market development‚ technological readiness‚ business sophistication and innovation.

"A ranking jump from 56 to 47 over two years is pretty substantial. And it's quite impressive in the context of a macro-economic environment that's been struggling with low commodity prices and electricity shortages. The government here needs to get some credit for these areas."

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According to the global report‚ South Africa's best score - a mark of 5.2/7 - came for financial market development. In this area‚ the country ranked 11th in the world.

But when it came to heath and primary education‚ South Africa plummeted down the rankings - placing 123rd out of 138 countries.

"Over the past couple of years‚ in the longer term‚ health and primary education are areas where we've seen a bit of a decline in South Africa. Not just over the past two years‚ but also over a longer time trend‚" said Hoffman.

El-hadj Bah‚‎ a principal research economist at the African Development Bank‚ said that the information in the report was good to have‚ but it needed to be used to better the country's competitiveness in the region and across the world.

"We know what policies need to be done. The important thing is about implementing these policies. You need to improve the quality of institutions‚ you need to improve infrastructure [and] skills like primary and secondary and‚ of course‚ tertiary education‚" he said.

While this happens‚ South Africa needs to look over its shoulder as Botswana and‚ in particular‚ Rwanda are making strides forward.

Hoffman said: "Rwanda and Botswana are making a lot of progress. Rwanda moved up to 52nd‚ which is only a couple down from South Africa‚ so that increase in Rwanda is impressive. It's clear that the government there is quite serious about undertaking these improvements in the business environments."

TMG Digital/TimesLIVE