Mauritius 1st in Africa in Global Competitiveness Report

Mauritius ranks 1^st in Africa and occupies the 45^th place worldwide, according to the world Global Competitiveness Report 2013-14 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) entitled: Strengthening Recovery by Raising Productivity, released last week.

The country is presently the highest ranked in the sub-Saharan region after having moved nine places from its previous ranking at the 54^th position in the last Global Competitiveness Report 2011-12, despite the fact that this region continues to face the biggest competitiveness challenges of all regions.

The 2013-14 report which assesses 148 economies across the world, based on 12 pillars of competitiveness, justifies Mauritius’ success by attributing it to several factors which have been determining for the country to record a fairly good performance in all the indices.

Mauritius, says the report, has benefitted from relatively strong and transparent public institutions (39^th) and clear property rights, strong judicial independence, and an efficient government (29^th).

According to the report, private institutions in the country are rated as highly accountable (14^th), with effective auditing and accounting standards and strong investor protection. The country’s infrastructure is also well developed by regional standards (50^th), particularly its ports, air transport, and roads, states the report.

Moreover, notable improvements have taken place in the areas of market efficiency. Financial markets have deepened, lifting Mauritius’ rank up to 26^th on the back of improved access to different modes of financing and financial services. This, says the report, is further reflected in company spending on research and development which seems to be increasing, thus enhancing Mauritius’ innovative capacity.

Furthermore, the country boasts an efficient goods market (25^th) driven by greater foreign prevalence and more competition. The report underlines that labour market is relatively flexible (55^th), although the country does not deploy its talent efficiently.

Mauritius is ranked 92^nd in its capacity to retain talent but the report observes that the share of women in the labour force remains low at 118^th. This is further reflected in the low availability of scientists and engineers (102^nd), concludes the report.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 of the WEF assesses the competitiveness landscape of 148 economies while providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. The WEF defines competitiveness as the set of institutions policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of an economy.