New Research Says African Commonwealth Economies Are Generally More Competitive Than African Non-Commonwealth Economies
New research from the Royal Commonwealth Society says that African Commonwealth countries'
economies are generally more competitive than their non-Commonwealth counterparts. In fact,
five of the seven most competitive African countries are Commonwealth members (South Africa,
Mauritius, Rwanda, Botswana and Namibia).
The research was conducted to ascertain whether membership of the association confers any
measurable advantage upon its states and compares Commonwealth countries with their non-
Commonwealth regional and economic counterparts across a range of indicators, including
competitiveness, press freedom, inequality, gender, peace, democracy and environmental
sustainability.
The emerging findings of the research will be published on the 23 May by the Royal
Commonwealth Society in a report entitled 'Commonwealth Compared 2013: Setting the Scene'.
The first ever Commonwealth index of its kind, the report shines new light on the association's
greatest strengths and weaknesses. The findings suggest that while there is only a small difference
in the global median scores between the competitiveness of Commonwealth countries' economies
and non-Commonwealth countries' economies generally, African countries buck this trend and
outperform their non-Commonwealth partners.
As a working paper, the report doesn't investigate causality, but it does suggest that the shared
history of the Commonwealth, the familiarity forged between its leaders and its common language
have created a Commonwealth 'X-factor' and that now is the time to maximise the effectiveness of
the association.
The full report will be available to download from 20.00BST Thursday 23 May 2013, at
http://www.thercs.org/society/CommonwealthCompared.
Mike Lake, Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society, said:
'This is a thought-provoking and exciting report that suggests the Commonwealth network
provides a framework in which its member states can prosper. As countries reassess the value of
established networks, this report shows the potential of the Commonwealth and the tangible value
of shared history, values and language.'