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Switzerland ranked 1^st as the most competitive country while landlocked Burundi was the least (ranked 133) competitive. Among the 31 African countries surveyed, Ghana ranked 20^th and the ranking for each country was based on the aggregate scores for 12 specific pillars of competitiveness. Ghana ranked 5^th out of the 9 West African neighbouring countries captured in the survey.

The ranking was based on the Executive Opinion Survey (EOS), conducted by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) on behalf of the WEF.

The WEF annual competitiveness report examines the numerous factors enabling national economies to achieve sustained economic growth and long-term prosperity. The findings offer useful information to both policy makers and decision makers regarding the challenges facing the Ghanaian economy and what it takes to become competitive in the marketplace.

 

In working out the rankings, the WEF engages 12 pillars of competitiveness, classified under three broad sub-indices as follows:

Different pillars affect different countries differently, depending on the country’s stage of development. Ghana is within the first stage of development i.e. factor-driven stage, as defined in table 2 above. Hence, Ghana’s ranking was based on her factor endowments such as unskilled labour and natural resources.

Business investment is critical to productivity and sophisticated financial markets are required to make capital available for private sector investment. Out of the 133 countries, Ghana’s Financial Market registered an appreciable level of sophistication, moving up from the 69^th to 59^th   position in 2009 as shown in table 3.

The quality of a country’s institutions has a strong bearing on competitiveness and economic freedom. The Institutional environment which is determined by the legal and administrative framework within which individuals, firms and government interact placed 63rd in 2008.

 

In spite of this pillar dropping to 68^th in 2009, the result still reflects Ghana’s deepening democratic governance and peace which have been widely celebrated in Africa.

Higher Education and Training still lag behind international standards even though 2009 saw a slight shift in ranking from 111^th in 2008 to 108^th.

The rankings for Innovativeness suggest that Ghana is not harnessing new technologies sufficiently for productivity enhancement. In this regard, Ghana ranked 115^th in 2009, a marginal decline (114^th) over that of 2008.

Ghana’s macroeconomic pillars for 2008 and 2009 scored the poorest rankings of 121^st and 129^th respectively, an indication of a deteriorating macroeconomic stability in two successive years. Debts levels were high; inflation rate has been in two digits and to the business community, the high interest rates have been the biggest bane to doing business.

The rankings for Market size (86^th), Business Sophistication (98^th), Health & Primary Education (115^th) remained unchanged between 2008 and 2009.

In reaction to the Report, the President of the Association of Ghana Industries, Nana Owusu-Afar stated that today’s challenging economic environment underscores the need for not losing sight of competitiveness fundamentals and regular tracking of the world’s economies. The economic recession which hit the world’s largest industrialized economies continues to take a heavy toll on several economies including Ghana. Evidently, the WEF survey revealed the weak linkages, particularly the macroeconomic instability, in Ghana’s developmental agenda, of becoming highly competitive. Although it is true that macroeconomic stability alone cannot increase the productivity of a nation, it is recognized that its disorder harms the economy.

There is the need for a holistic roll-out of agenda for all the 12 pillars in achieving the desired competitiveness.

AGI believes policy makers and government should make a more conscious effort to improve Ghana’s competitiveness by building a well-developed infrastructure, an efficient health and primary education system, a stable macroeconomic framework and engaging new technologies for productivity enhancement.

 

Nana Owusu-Afari, AGI President