NAMIBIA has dropped one place in the World Economic Forum's ranking of 140 countries in terms of competitiveness.
In the forum's latest 'Global Competitiveness Report', which was released yesterday, Namibia is ranked 100th out of 140 countries surveyed - down one place from its ranking in 2017.
While ranked the ninth most competitive country on the African continent, Namibia is ranked the sixth most competitive economy in sub-Saharan Africa - behind Mauritius (49th in the world), South Africa (67), Seychelles (74), Botswana (90) and Kenya (93).
The Global Competitive Index used to rank the countries surveyed focused on human capital, innovation, resilience and agility as factors at the forefront of the new industrial revolution. With this year's report, the World Economic Forum implemented a new approach that it says will help measure the readiness of countries for the fourth Industrial Revolution.
Namibia scored 52,7 out of 100 on the index, representing a slight improvement of 0,3, compared to 2017.
The report highlighted that except for the Seychelles which moved up 10 places compared to 2017, other sub-Saharan African countries ranked higher than Namibia lost ground in terms of competitiveness, with South Africa and Botswana both dropping down five places. There were no results for Mauritius and Kenya for 2017.
Namibia's best rankings were in the labour market (at 39th place), the financial system and institutions.
The country's ranking in the labour market was attributed to the labour tax rate, redundancy costs and workers rights, while the positive ranking of the financial system was based on insurance premiums as a percentage of GDP and non-performing loans.
"Namibia performs well in the pillar 'institutions' regarding the efficiency of the legal framework and press freedom (both rank 24), budget transparency and judicial independence (both at 27), as well as property rights, while the homicide rate (rank 128), e-participation (116) and quality of land administration (110) are dragging the rankings down," the Economic Association of Namibia (EAN) said in a commentary on the report yesterday.
The report indicates that the country is lagging behind in terms of business dynamics, market size, health, and information communication technology adoption.
The low rankings were caused by factors such as life expectancy, time it takes to start a business, quality of research institutions, insolvency regulatory framework, and indicators related to internet uses.
Klaus Schade, a research associate at the EAN who compiled the association's commentary, said there is a need to improve ICT skills and enable everyone to have fast access to ICT services in the country.
Addressing those issues would not only attract domestic and foreign direct investment, but also allow businesses to compete regionally and globally, he reasoned.
Schade emphasised the need for Namibia to introduce and embrace new technologies, and to use them more aggressively in order to provide an opportunity to accelerate access to electricity and therefore ICT services, which will open new business opportunities.
Contacted for comment yesterday, trade and industrialisation minister Tjekero Tweya said although he has heard about the report, he could not give comment as he was yet to read it.
