Johannesburg - The Global Competiveness Report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Thursday shows that South Africa remains highly ranked among countries with the best financial markets, but fails deeply in daily issues affecting ordinary citizens.
The report, released on Thursday ahead of the WEF's annual meeting of the New Champions 2010 in Tianjin, ranked 139 countries according to a cocktail of key indicators.
It points out South Africa has struggled to turn its potential into positive outcomes for economic development and poverty alleviation.
According to the report, South Africa came in 6th out of 139 in terms of the soundness of its banks; at No 1 in terms of regulations relating to securities exchanges and again occupied top position in the legal rights index.
It states that South Africa's financial market development is near the best in the world, thanks to the reinforcing measures taken before the global recession.
However, DA MP
Lindiwe Mazibuko, who is also its national spokesperson, says economic strength serves little purpose if it
cannot be translated into outcomes which improve the lives of all South Africans.
The report points out that on quality of the education system, South Africa came in at number 130, and on maths and science education quality it ranked 137th out of 139. On HIV prevalence, it weighed in at 136, and it was 127th on life expectancy.
"As Africa's strongest economy, we should not be ranking in the very bottom places in terms of social deliverables," said Mazibuko.
"South Africans should ask themselves where the breakdown is occurring. The answer lies with the national government's policies, which have failed to improve the targets essential to our country's development."
On labour market flexibility, the report ranked South Africa's cooperation in labour-employer relations at 132 out of 139. It weighed in at 131 on flexibility of wage determination, and at 135 on hiring and firing practices.
Mazibuko said these low rankings reflect the straitjacket in which the labour market has been placed by the ANC.
"It shall certainly not be aided by the saga that has played out between the ANC national government and the unions over the past three weeks, which will no doubt show up in next year's GCR (Global Competiveness Report)," she said.
Switzerland tops the overall rankings in the report, the United States falls two places to fourth position, overtaken by Sweden (2nd) and Singapore (3rd), after already ceding the top place to Switzerland last year.
Several countries from the Middle East and North Africa region occupy the upper half of the rankings, led by Qatar (17th), Saudi Arabia (21st), Israel (24th), United Arab Emirates (25th), Tunisia (32nd), Kuwait (35th) and Bahrain (37th), with most Gulf States continuing their upward trend of recent years.
In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa (54th) and Mauritius (55th) feature in the top half of the rankings, followed by second-tier best regional performers Namibia (74th), Botswana (76th) and Rwanda (80th).
- Fin24.com