Malawi down on global competitiveness index

Malawi has this year slipped three steps to 135 out of 145 economies on the 2015/16 Global Competitiveness Index—the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide.

But Ministry of Industry and Trade spokesperson Wiskes Nkombezi, in an interview last week, said while the report is a good tool for advice, it has not taken into account the reforms government is implementing which may not yield instant results.

The report released last week, provides an overview of the competitiveness performance of 145 economies and sheds light on key factors, their mechanisms and interrelations that determine economic growth and the level of present and future prosperity in a country.

The rankings are based on the three pillars; basic requirements, efficiency enhancers and innovation and sophistication in which Malawi has been ranked on positions 138, 127 and 119 respectively.

Malawi has improved on basic requirements to 138 from last year’s 139 while poor performance has been registered on efficiency enhancers and innovation and sophistication factors, with Malawi declining five steps and four steps to 122 and 115 respectively.

Reads the report in part: “Africa’s levels of productivity remain low. The recent fall in resource prices has affected many countries and the normalisation of US [United States] monetary policy may lead to increased investor scrutiny of emerging market risk, undermining growth prospects. “Both these developments emphasise the region’s need to prioritise competitiveness-enhancing reforms.”

Nkombezi said there is always need of reforms for Malawi to further improve and this needs change of mindset.

“We must also understand that there are some parameters which need resources like in case of electricity. For instance, we have just launched the online business registration and this again has not been taken into account,” he said.

Nkombezi said they will wait for the World Bank Doing Business Report and compare with the competitiveness report on the efforts Malawi has made.

“For instance, Singapore has not topped the list on this index but it is always number one on World Bank Doing Business Report and this gives us an idea on where to look at,” he said.

There are wide regional disparities in competitiveness with the top performers Mauritius (46), South Africa (49) and reversing its four-year downward trend, Rwanda (58) and Botswana (71).