Dr. Kwabena Dufuor, Finance Minister and Economic Planning
Proponents of the Global Competitiveness Index Report say Ghana’s economy still faces some challenges despite the achievements chalked so far.
Jennifer Blanke, Lead Economist, World Economic Forum, said though Ghana has made some progress, it could not match the development of countries.
She advised the country to prioritize competitiveness by reviewing its policies and putting in place programmes that will boost the country’s status.
Carsten Nilaus Pedersen, Danish Ambassador to Ghana, said Ghana should prioritize real growth and employment creation as crucial developmental projects, adding, “We will support our partners to develop a market driven economy attracted to both local and foreign investors.”
He added that government’s overall objective should be targeted at creating decent jobs while strengthening the research institutions.
Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, said Ghana has been striving to develop a competitive and thriving private sector to make the country attractive.
She noted that the nation’s target is to move from lower middle income status to upper middle income and stressed the need to provide specific interventions to the private sector which will aid this development.
Ghana was ranked 114th in the 2011 Index and 12th in Africa. It fell behind South Africa, Mauritius, Rwanda, Botswana, Namibia, The Gambia, Kenya, Benin, Senegal and Zambia.
It demonstrated weakness in a number of areas which Mrs Blanke said required attention to move to a higher competitiveness level.
In the basic requirement category, Ghana performed very poorly in infrastructure, macro-economic environment, as well as health and primary education. In all, it was ranked above the 100 position.
While overall infrastructure quality, railroad infrastructure development, quality of port infrastructure, quality of air transport infrastructure, quality of electricity supply and telephone lines constituted infrastructure, national savings rate, inflation, interest rate spread, government debt, budget deficit and real effective exchange rate made up macro-economic environment.
The country performed poorly in technological readiness, market size, as well as higher education and training requirement with regard to enhancement of efficiency.
While it placed 108th position with regard to higher education and training, it placed 117 and 83 in technological readiness and market size.
The Global Competitiveness Report 2010–2011 was published by the World Economic Forum within the framework of the Centre for Global Competitiveness and Performance. It was based on 12 pillars.
By Charles Nixon Yeboah