South Africa moved up four places in the latest global competiveness ranking, and ranked second among the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries.

South Africa ranked 50th in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF's) ‘Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012’, which was topped by Switzerland, followed by Singapore and Sweden.

China, the world’s most populous country, continues to lead the Brics economies by a significant margin, ranking 26th. Brazil ranked 53rd, India 56th and Russia 66th in the competiveness index.

Business Unity South Africa (Busa) ascribed the improvement in South Africa’s overall position out of 142 countries, more to exogenous factors than to internal developments, and has underlined the country’s importance as a gateway to investment in emerging markets.

South Africa’s financial market development ranked fourth indicating a high confidence in this market, which the report indicated was at a time when trust is returning very slowly to other parts of the world.

Further, South Africa was ranked 25th in the market size pillar, 30th for intellectual property protection and property rights, third in accountability of its private institutions, and 32nd for goods market efficiency.

But, the report alluded to South Africa needing to address certain weakness to improve its competiveness.

The business costs of crime and violence (136th) and the sense that the police are unable to provide protection from crime (95th) did not contribute to an environment that fosters competitiveness, it stated.

Another major concern remains the health of the workforce, which ranked 129th, as a result of high rates of communicable diseases and poor health indicators more generally.

Further, the reality of labour relations in the country hits home, with labour and employer relations ranking at 138th.

South Africa ranks 95th in labour market efficiency, with rigid hiring and firing practices (139th), a lack of flexibility in wage determination by companies (138th) and significant tensions in labour-employer relations (138th).

“Efforts must also be made to increase the university enrollment rate of only 15%, which places the country 97th overall, in order to better develop its innovation potential.

In addition, South Africa’s infrastructure, although good by regional standards, ranked 62nd and required upgrading, the WEF report stated.

Busa said it was important to build a consensus in the economy on the need to confront areas where the country did not compare well with emerging market peers.

South Africa and Mauritius are the only two African countries in the top half of the global competitiveness index rankings, with 13 African countries in the bottom 20 economies, the report pointed out.

Despite Africa weathering the global economic crisis better than many other parts of the world, and despite recent positive trends, such as improvements in competitiveness fundamentals and more sustainable fiscal policies, the continent is lagging behind more advanced economies.

Upgrading infrastructure and education, and developing more solid institutional structures were key to enabling rapid economic development in Africa. Access to finance, corruption and inadequate supply of infrastructure were also seen as challenges for doing business on the continent.

Meanwhile, Singapore in second position overtook Sweden in the global rankings, while the US continued the decline that started three years ago, falling one more position to fifth place.

Northern and Western European countries dominate the top 10 with Sweden (3rd), Finland (4th), Germany (6th), the Netherlands (7th), Denmark (8th) and the UK (10th). Japan remains the second-ranked Asian economy at 9th place, despite falling three places since last year.