South Africa is game for competitiveness

This week Brand South Africa marks the launch of the South African Competitiveness Forum. This forum, scheduled to take place on October 30 in Johannesburg, is a response to rapid and sometimes unpredictable changes in both domestic and international economic environments.

Understanding these trends, and to interpret the ways in which these impact on South Africa’s competitiveness and reputation in global markets, is one of the goals of the forum.

For this reason the Competitiveness Forum is a one-of-a-kind platform where governmental, business and civil society stakeholders can contribute directly to the identification of issues that require intervention in order to improve the country’s global competitiveness and reputation. An improved international reputation will, in turn, assist the country to realise the long-term strategic goals identified in the National Development Plan.

The Competitiveness Forum is set to create a platform where specific issues that impact positively or negatively on the country’s competitiveness can be put under the spotlight. The forum will not only identify challenges, but will also take a holistic view of a range of factors that impact on South Africa’s competitiveness. The outcomes of the forum will, therefore, be focused on solutions, and the development of appropriate strategies through which relevant government, business and civil society actors can, together, address issues and challenges of common concern.

South Africa’s democracy as we know it today is a result of many years of intense negotiations. The shaping of the country’s destiny, therefore, depends on the ability we as South Africans have to be open and receptive to diverse ideas, opinions and positions.

The same principle applies to the Competitiveness Forum in that an improved international reputation, and country competitiveness, cannot be accomplished through the work of government alone.

In planning for the forum, Brand South Africa integrated specific goals of the National Development Plan to position the larger conversation on country competitiveness and reputation within the high-level framework the NDP and Vision 2030 identifies for the country.

This will, therefore, not be a regular conference or mere talk-shop. Participants in the working sessions will deliberate on, and provide inputs regarding issues that impact either negatively or positively on competitiveness. This input is crucial for Brand South Africa in our international marketing efforts.

As host of the Competitiveness Forum, Brand South Africa will play the role of facilitator. The forum will culminate in a detailed report on outcomes to be submitted to the Executive Authority via the Ministry for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation.

But how does Brand South Africa, an organisation tasked with managing South Africa’s international reputation, deal with the complex questions related to competitiveness? To properly manage and enhance a country’s global reputation, it is necessary to have a holistic understanding of the factors that impact on the country’s international value proposition.

The value proposition is a combination of special features of the economy. This can range from special policy incentives for foreign direct investment, tax incentives to local industries, or the strength of a sector such as the financial and related services sector in South Africa.

In addition, a feature such as physical infrastructure contributes to the larger value proposition or competitive package that the country presents to prospective investors, trade partners, or for that matter tourists intending to spend time and money in South Africa’s abundant sunshine.

A concrete example of how Brand South Africa approaches the rather complex issue of competitiveness comes in the form of understanding South Africa’s position in relation to peer developing countries.

In a year when South Africa hosted the fifth Brics Summit, Brand South Africa focused some of its research on understanding South Africa’s competitiveness in relation to other developing countries and emerging markets.

In a special report entitled ‘South Africa — a top developing and globally competitive nation’, Brand South Africa analysed findings from a range of global competitiveness, human development, ease of doing business, and reputation indicators.

How does South Africa compare to peer developing countries in terms of competitiveness? The Brics countries contain 43 per cent of the world’s population. The combined GDP of these countries is estimated at $13.7 trillion (20–25 per cent of global GDP), and the Brics’ combined foreign reserves is estimated to be $4 trillion.

To these staggering numbers can be added that the Brics accounted for 11 per cent of global FDI flows in 2012 ($465 billion).

A close interrogation shows that South Africa outperforms average performance of Bric peer nations on several of the WEF Competitiveness pillars such as institutions; goods and market efficiency; financial market development; technological readiness; business sophistication; and interestingly enough Innovation. This means that on six of the 12 WEF pillars of competitiveness South Africa outperforms the Brics nations.

However, although the Brics account for 43 per cent of the world’s population, there is a much wider network of developing countries and emerging markets against which South Africa competes for FDI, and share of voice in a congested international market.

Perceptions regarding our country’s competitiveness certainly have an impact on the country’s domestic and international reputation. If South Africa already compares well with peer developing countries, this can be an inspiration for the country to find solutions to some of the factors that have an adverse impact on overall country competitiveness.

— The writer is the CEO of Brand South Africa.