Botswana business prepare for 2015 World Bank Doing Business Survey

The Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) will host a seminar for the local business community as part of preparations for the upcoming 2015 Executive Opinion Survey (EOS) and World Bank Doing Business Surveys.
BNPC, which is mandated to enhance the country’s productivity, says the doing business surveys gather valuable information on a broad range of variables for which international data sources are scarce.
“The surveys are part of the data used to compile the annual Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum and the Doing Business Report published by the World Bank,” BNPC said.
The seminar, slated for March 2, will provide as much up-to-date information as possible, regarding the status of reforms and initiatives aimed at improving the business environment in Botswana.
“It will also give the business community an opportunity to enquire on any issues that relate to national competitiveness and impact on the business climate,” said BNPC.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry will lead the presentations and where possible, may arrange a few supporting testimonies. The World Bank will also provide a detailed clarification of the methodology used for the Doing Business Survey. Botswana has been declining in competitiveness rankings largely because of the decline in work ethic. The country’s strong performance is on the macro-economic environment. In the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2014-15, the country’s ranking remained stable at 74th place out of 144 countries and, fourth in the region behind Mauritius (39), South Africa (56) and Rwanda (62).
The Global Competiveness Index is a composite of 12 pillars of institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment, health and primary education, high education and training; goods market efficiency, labour market efficiency, financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication, and innovation. Out of these we have improved in four (4), namely, macroeconomic environment, labour market efficiency, technological readiness and market size, while we have not made any significant improvement in the areas of goods market efficiency and innovation.
“Efforts to address poor work ethic in the national labour force have not borne much fruit yet, as the issue is still considered the most problematic factor for doing business in the country. On a positive note, however, the intensity of the problem has declined. The percentage of respondents rating poor work ethic as the most problematic factor for doing business declined from 20.7percent to 18.5percent ,” said the previous report.