Thanks to Carolyn Clelland from Grace College in Hilton for sharing this article
A recent report published by the World Economic Forum sheds light on some of the barriers companies face in conducting business in Africa.
To capture the concerns of business leaders, every year the WEF conducts the executive opinion survey, asking business leaders around the world to rate the factors they consider most problematic for doing business in their country.
In 2016, access to financing was again considered the most problematic factor for doing business in Africa, followed by corruption.
These two factors have topped the list every year since 2012. However, tax rates emerged as the third-ranked concern, a significantly higher priority in 2016 than it had been in the past four years.
Rising in the list of concerns for African executives, albeit not yet ranking as particularly severe, are foreign currency regulations and difficulties in innovating, the WEF said.
“The growing concern here reflects the attempts of central banks to manage exchange rates in response to capital flow fluctuations, and the reality that innovation has started to affect the success of businesses in developing countries as much as it does in advanced economies.”
South Africa
According to survey respondents, there are a number of issues which are still seen as big barriers for doing business in South Africa – with government inefficiency, political instability and corruption listed among them.
These are the 16 highest-ranked reasons businesses are not keen on South Africa:
- Inefficient government bureaucracy
- Restrictive labor regulations
- Inadequately educated workforce
- Policy instability
- Corruption
- Crime and theft
- Poor work ethic in national labor force
- Inadequate supply of infrastructure
- Tax rates
- Access to financing
- Inflation
- Foreign currency regulations
- Government instability
- Tax regulations
- Poor public health
- Insufficient capacity to innovate
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