jenniferdebeer

"stereotype of Africa as non-competitive continent is simply not true

the below story landed in my mailbox. i want to highlight particularly:

"The stereotype of Africa as a non-competitive continent is simply not true," said John Page, chief economist for Africa at the World Bank. But across the continent, this potential is stymied by failures to make legal frameworks and trading processes less onerous for business, he added.

the full story below:


Industry’s bottom line on African innovation

R&D investment will come when capacity is there, say leaders


Kenya, South Africa and Tunisia have the best innovation climates in Africa, say business leaders. But despite a steady upward trend in economic growth, the continent still does not cut the mustard to attract significant R&D investment from industry.

Data to this effect comes from a survey published at the World Economic Forum “Davos for Africa” meeting in Cape Town from 13 to 15 June. It captures the perceptions of leading business executives from a cross-section of firms operating in African countries.

Of the 29 countries surveyed, Tunisia receives the most consistently high rating for its innovation capacity. It is the only country to register in the top three in all nine categories pertaining to science and technology [see table via link to PDF below]. It also gets the top overall score.

Tunisia’s hegemony might come as a surprise, since South Africa holds the number one spot in more categories. But the Southern giant is let down by poor quality science education and a shortfall of scientists. This fate is shared by Kenya, although the second runner up also falls short on IP protection.

A North-South divide can also be discerned in the data, which forms part of the Forum’s African Competitiveness Report 2007. Northern Africa chalks up the highest scores in categories related to skills and human resources, while Sub-Saharan Africa does well on research quality and technology transfer.

“Africa is doing well in basic areas of competitiveness but needs to focus more on technological readiness and market efficiency to really jump-start competitiveness,” said Jennifer Blanke, senior economist with the World Economic Forum and one of the authors of the competitiveness report.

The report compares Africa’s four largest economies—South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt—to the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies, suggesting the “Sane” countries have the potential to be the drivers of African economic growth. As a result, the authors suggest, international investment in Africa should not only focus on the poorest, but also go into bolstering economies that are doing well.

“The stereotype of Africa as a non-competitive continent is simply not true,” said John Page, chief economist for Africa at the World Bank. But across the continent, this potential is stymied by failures to make legal frameworks and trading processes less onerous for business, he added.

Economic growth in Africa measured 5.5 percent in 2006 and is expected to exceed six percent in coming years. But while the continent is experiencing its highest growth rates for decades, the dream of competing with other growing economies for multinational R&D investment remains elusive.

The majority of the countries surveyed by the Forum report attain only the lowest stage of economic development, namely “factor driven”. A handful—Benin, Botswana, Libya, Namibia and Tunisia—are described as “T1-2 transition economies”, which means that they are moving between stage one and stage two, which is “efficiency driven”. Only South Africa and Mauritius manage to reach the latter, while none attain the third level: “innovation driven”.

And while a session on R&D in Cape Town heard business representatives say that “the door was obviously open” in terms of their investing in R&D in Africa, in practice the scientific and technological quality is simply lacking at this stage.

“The R&D investment will come when demonstrated capability is there,” said Kenneth Willett, vice president and managing director for Africa of computer hardware giant HP.

For more on the “Davos of Africa” click on the links below.



Other sites Table to accompany article (PDF).
On this (research-africa) site More on the “Davos of Africa” - p.2. More on the “Davos of Africa” - p.20. More on the “Davos of Africa” - p.21.

Labels: africa, innovation, south africa

posted by Jennifer A. DeBeer @ 17:20