A consensus among policymakers and researchers has emerged that African countries have weathered the global economic crisis well. Yet questions remain as to how sustainable this growth will be over the longer term.
In particular, Kenya need to harness its resources through stronger integration into regional and international trade and finance, improve educational systems, enhance entrepreneurial opportunities for women and develop its tourism sector, The Africa Competitiveness Report 2011 says.
A report that reflect research efforts of three institutions – the World Economic Forum, the African Development Bank and the World Bank highlights areas on which Africa and Kenya in particular should focus to ensure strong, sustained and shared growth.
The report challenges African countries to diversify their exports and to open up for regional trade. “Trade raises income through specialization, increased competition and the exploitation of economies of scale. It also increases the variety of products and services available in the market and promotes technological innovation.”
In the global competitiveness index (GCI) Kenya declined from rank 98 in 2009/2010 to 106 in 2010/2011 with a score of 3.6 mark. In Africa, South Africa was the best ranked at position 45 and 54 respectively with a score of 4.3 mark.
Despite Kenya's impressive gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 4.6 percent in 2010 its GCI 106 ranking's poor globally, thus regional integration can help the country become more competitive and resilient to external shocks, as the recent experience of the global financial crisis illustrates.
The value of Kenya's total exports grew by 18.8 per cent from Sh 344.9 billion in 2009 to Sh 409.8 billion in 2010. Value of imports grew by 20.2 per cent to Sh 947.4 billion in 2010 compared to a marginal growth of 2.3 per cent in 2009, according to the Kenya National Bureau Standard (KNBS) Economic Survey 2011. But, the competitiveness report notes that Kenya need to scale its export performance for growth to enhance foreign direct investment (FDI).
Kenya's ranked in position 96 in higher education and 121 in health and primary education in GCI even though its expected to spend Sh 193.3 billion in 2010/2011, according KNBS, “higher education enrollment remains extremely low by international standards,” competitiveness report says.
Additionally, the country is ranked in position 101 in technological readiness. The report points out low enrollment in the fields of science, engineering technology and business as reason; unlike rapidly growing economies such as Korea and China, but more often in social sciences and the humanities.
The result, the competitiveness report says is a skills mismatch where university graduates remain unemployed, while Kenya continue to face shortages of skilled labour.
The rate of women’s entrepreneurship is high in Africa and Kenya in particular's – higher than in any other region. However, the report says this is not necessarily a sign of economic empowerment. “This is because women are concentrated in the informal, micro, low-growth, low-profit areas.”
This is because “women’s education has continued to lag behind men’s, including areas of particular relevance to running a business such as financial literacy and management training,” the report points out “while business laws are generally gender blind, family, inheritance, labour and land laws are often not, limiting control over assets within the household and decision-making authority.”
The report shows that while Kenyan women are less likely to be operating larger firms in higher value-added sectors, those who do so in fact manage firms that perform equally well as those run by men. What is critical is not to increase entrepreneurship per se, but rather to enable women to move into higher value-added activities.
According to the KNBS tourism sector grew by 15.1 percent, however, the competitiveness report says Kenya's yet to exploit its rich natural and cultural resources through travel and tourism, with the potential to generate significant employment, growth and poverty reduction.
Kenya has many advantages on which to build its tourism industry, including price competitiveness, a strong affinity for tourism and rich natural resources supported by efforts towards environmental sustainability. However, the report says a number of obstacles remain to develop the sector, notably improving safety and security, upgrading health and hygiene levels, developing infrastructure and access to African sites, and fostering the region’s human capital. Improvements in these areas would greatly enhance Kenya's ability to reap the enormous potential benefits of tourism.
No comments:
Post a Comment