Namibia’s global competitiveness rank down six places
Namibia fell by six places on the Global Competitiveness rankings for 2017 and 2018 and are now ranked 90th according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018.
Namibia ranks highly for its institutions (44th), infrastructure (67th), financial market development (50th), and labour market efficiency (33rd) but is rated poorly for the quality of its higher education (111th), health and primary education (110th), business sophistication (87th), technological readiness (89th), macroeconomic environment (107th), and market size (111th).
“Concerted efforts to achieve the desired outcomes and goals of the Harambee Prosperity Plan could still see Namibia making more significant moves up the 2 rankings before 2020. To achieve this several of the Harambee Plan’s proposed actions to improve competitiveness should be expedited,” Graham Hopwood, Executive Director of the Institute of Public Policy Research said.
Access to financing followed by an inadequately educated workforce, inefficient government bureaucracy and corruption are listed in the report as the most problematic factors for doing business in Namibia.
“The fall by six places in the overall ranking leaves Namibia a long way from Harambee Prosperity Plan target of being the most competitive economy in Africa by 2020. Namibia is now the seventh most competitive economy in Africa, one place lower than last year,” he said.
Hopwood said that some of actions include; simplifying business registration procedures, support for practical training programmes, making the import of skilled labour easier, servicing more business and industrial plots and reducing the number of days it takes to register a property.
Hopwood also added that increasing the percentage of Grade 10 and 12 learners achieving pass marks and incentivising tertiary institutions to achieve high positions in the rankings of best African universities could improve Namibia’s global competitiveness.
