SA ahead of emerging markets in WEF trade index
South Africa has ranked 59th in the World Economic Forum's first Global Enabling Trade Report.
Released last week, the report presents an analysis of the measures facilitating trade in 118 economies worldwide.
South Africa's ranking placed the country within the top half of the index and ahead of other emerging market economies such as India (71), Brazil (80) and Russia (103).
Regionally, Mauritius topped the sub-Saharan Africa rankings (40), followed by South Africa and Namibia (77th).
The Enabling Trade Index, featured in the report, measures the factors, policies and services facilitating the free flow of goods over borders and to destination.
The index breaks the enablers into four overall issue areas: market access, border administration, transport and communications infrastructure and the business environment.
According to the report, South Africa's main strengths are its transport and communication infrastructure and services.
A look at the detailed indicators of the report reveal that South Africa scored particularly high in areas of ability and ease of tracking (18), quality of air transport infrastructure (19) , trans-shipment connectivity (22) and ease and affordability of shipment (22).
South Africa achieved an overall rank of 45 in this sub index. South Africa attained an overall border administration ranking of 50, scoring well (36) in transparency but falling short in efficiency of import / export procedures (70).
Areas of concerns relate to market access and the business environment.
The former sub-category saw South Africa reach an overall ranking of 67 due to impeding tariff and non-tariff barriers.
Concerns about the difficulty of hiring foreign nationals (115) and the business costs of crime and violence (113) saw South Africa score particularly low in the business environment sub-category (99).
The Enabling Trade Index was topped by East Asian economies, Hong Kong and Singapore, followed by Sweden.
Click here for the full report.
Released last week, the report presents an analysis of the measures facilitating trade in 118 economies worldwide.
South Africa's ranking placed the country within the top half of the index and ahead of other emerging market economies such as India (71), Brazil (80) and Russia (103).
Regionally, Mauritius topped the sub-Saharan Africa rankings (40), followed by South Africa and Namibia (77th).
The Enabling Trade Index, featured in the report, measures the factors, policies and services facilitating the free flow of goods over borders and to destination.
The index breaks the enablers into four overall issue areas: market access, border administration, transport and communications infrastructure and the business environment.
According to the report, South Africa's main strengths are its transport and communication infrastructure and services.
A look at the detailed indicators of the report reveal that South Africa scored particularly high in areas of ability and ease of tracking (18), quality of air transport infrastructure (19) , trans-shipment connectivity (22) and ease and affordability of shipment (22).
South Africa achieved an overall rank of 45 in this sub index. South Africa attained an overall border administration ranking of 50, scoring well (36) in transparency but falling short in efficiency of import / export procedures (70).
Areas of concerns relate to market access and the business environment.
The former sub-category saw South Africa reach an overall ranking of 67 due to impeding tariff and non-tariff barriers.
Concerns about the difficulty of hiring foreign nationals (115) and the business costs of crime and violence (113) saw South Africa score particularly low in the business environment sub-category (99).
The Enabling Trade Index was topped by East Asian economies, Hong Kong and Singapore, followed by Sweden.
Click here for the full report.