Kenya managed to score the most improved African and sub-Sahara country on the GCI top 100 rankings/FILE
The Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday confirms that Kenya has edged up 10 slots in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) rankings.
Kenya managed to score the most improved African and sub-Sahara country on the GCI top 100 rankings.
At position 31, Kenya’s economy scored well on the back of support from the well-developed financial markets by international standards.
Kenya, also scored well on its innovative capacity and is ranked at position 46 buoyed by high company spending on research and development and good scientific research institutions that collaborate well with the business sector in research activities.
According to the report highlights, Kenya’s advances on the GCI ladder was largely on the back of greater confidence in the institutions indicator.
On this particular indicator which tests a country’s investor protection positioning Kenya is now ranked at position 88.
The GCI score is one of the three major dimensions that are relied upon to evaluate Kenya’s Vision 2030 progress.
Welcoming the report, Vision 2030 Delivery Board Chairman James Mwangi, described Kenya’s global competitiveness comeback as a positive affirmation of the ongoing efforts to transform the country.
Through a string of institutional and policy reforms enshrined in the new Constitution and related Acts of Parliament, Mwangi noted that the country is now on a national development recovery path.
He said that recent efforts to step up the reforms agenda across the economic, social and political fronts will also help solidify Kenya’s GCI ranking next year as a number of on-going flagship projects begin to bear fruits.
“The Vision 2030 Delivery Board is confident that projects such as the stringent implementation of our new constitution, construction of the Standard Gauge Railway line, JKIA upgrades and related infrastructural developments at the Port of Mombasa, will further serve to enhance our global competitiveness,” Mwangi said.
