United States is known as the world’s super power, Germany is the World’s football star, while Somalia and Syria are known for turmoil. That is not all, and Rwanda is fast becoming one of the fastest growing countries in the world.
According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 released today by the World Economic Forum, out of 144 countries, Rwanda is number 62 up from 66 last year.
According to the Report, Rwanda is one of the three sub-Saharan economies, including Mauritius (39th), South Africa (56th) and Rwanda (62nd) scoring in the top half of the rankings.
The tiny East African country beat other countries like India ranked 71, Greece 81 and Egypt 119.
Rwanda’s neighbours Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are ranked 90, 121 and 122 respectively.
Rwanda has evolved through a period of economic prosperity and macroeconomic stability in the past decade with GDP growing at an average of 8% annually pitching the country in the ranks of fastest growing economies in Africa and now ranks among the best in the world.
The Global Competitiveness Report’s competitiveness ranking is based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), which was introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2004.
Defining competitiveness as the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country, GCI scores are calculated by drawing together country-level data covering 12 categories – the pillars of competitiveness – that collectively make up a comprehensive picture of a country’s competitiveness.
The 12 pillars are: institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, higher education and training, goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation.
Speaking on the occasion to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the genocide, the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) President Donald Kaberuka noted that Rwanda’s quick growth should provide at least two lessons that can be very relevant to many countries facing challenges of reconstruction.
‘ ‘The first lesson, he said, is that no matter how bad a situation is, a determined people can prevail against the most impossible odds. The second lesson is that while there are manuals on how to build complex structures, there is no such toolbox on how to rebuild a destroyed nation, he said.People have to look to their culture, their history, the nature of the crisis they face and come up with their own solutions’’
In its annual assessment of the factors driving countries’ productivity and prosperity, the report identifies uneven implementation of structural reforms across different regions and levels of development as the biggest challenge to sustaining global growth. It also highlights talent and innovation as two areas where leaders in the public and private sectors need to collaborate more effectively in order to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic development.
According to the report’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), the United States improves its competitiveness position for the second consecutive year, climbing two places to third on the back of gains to its institutional framework and innovation scores.
Elsewhere in the top five, Switzerland tops the ranking for the sixth consecutive year, Singapore remains second and Finland (4th) and Germany (5th) both drop one place.
They are followed by Japan (6th), which climbs three places and Hong Kong SAR (7th), which remains stable. Europe’s open, service-based economies follow, with the Netherlands (8th) also stable and the United Kingdom (9th) going up one place. Sweden (10th) rounds up the top-10 of the most competitive economies in the world.
Summit Business
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