As we look towards closing 2015, we can say that the South African nation brand has had a year of mixed fortunes – positive increases in some international indices and some declines.
South Africa’s performance in the World Economic Forum’s 2015 global competitiveness index placed the country within the top 50 most competitive nations in the world and the second most competitive on the continent.
To summarise, South Africa’s biggest improvements come in the areas of health and primary education (up six places); labour market efficiency (up six places); technological readiness (up 16 places) and innovation (up five places).
South Africa has also improved in the areas of macroeconomic environment (up four places); higher education and training (up three places); and business sophistication (up two places), while dropping in the area of infrastructure (down eight places); institutions (down two places); goods market efficiency (down six places); financial market development (down five places), and market size (down four places).
The Mo Ibrahim index on African governance saw South Africa holding steady at number 4 of 54 countries on the continent.
This index looks at the performance of African countries in the areas of safety and rule of law; participation and human rights; sustainable economic opportunity and human development.
South Africa’s performance in each of these areas earns it the position of seven in terms of safety and rule of law (up from position eight in 2014); four in terms of participation and human rights; two in terms of sustainable economic opportunity, and six in terms of human development in Africa.
Nation brand
The Brand Finance list of the 100 most valuable nation brands was also released in October. According to this list, South Africa is the 37th most valuable nation brand in the world, with a net nation brand value of $225 billion (R3.23 trillion). Brand Finance measures the strength and value of the nation brands of 100 leading countries, using a method based on the royalty relief mechanism employed to value the world’s largest companies. The study measures a nation brand across the following pillars: goods and services, investment and society. These are divided into sub-pillars: tourism, market, governance and people and skills.
What do these numbers tell us about South Africa as a nation brand?
They tell us that South Africa is a visible nation brand among the global community of nations.
Our performance in these indices equally tells us that work needs to be done to ensure that we address the challenges that impact negatively on the nation brand and our global competitiveness.
This includes, among others, areas of education, health care, policy cohesion. However, we can again feel confident that the National Development Plan has also highlighted similar areas and work is underway to decisively deal with these challenges. Addressing these challenges systemically will see South Africa increase its global competitiveness.
Moving ahead
The numbers equally tell us that South Africa’s dynamism, energy, industriousness and personality, encapsulated by the national pay-off line, Inspiring New Ways – continues to contribute to our brand equity. Domestic and international challenges aside, South Africa has all the ingredients to move ahead as a globally competitive nation. This will, however, require the concerted effort of each citizen since, ultimately, the nation brand reflects each of us.
This Wednesday, the Simon Anholt Institute is to release the results of the 2015 Nation Brand index, which evaluates the strength of 50 nation brands in the areas of tourism, governance, culture and heritage, people, investment and immigration and exports.
Brand South Africa invites you to a breakfast at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Rosebank as South Africa’s performance in this index is unpacked.
This will be evaluated against South Africa’s recent performance in other indices, to sum up the state of the South African nation brand, as we prepare to end 2015. You can also follow the conversation on @Brand_SA #SABrandIndex
* Kingsley Makhubela is the chief executive of Brand South Africa. Follow him on Twitter @klmmakhubela.
** The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Media.
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