BEE Partner, South Africa Economy Watch

The whole week hiking price of oil, nobody can stand still. We need to find out who is indeed stimulate it.

A week after failing to deflate record oil prices at a summit in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude producers and consumers will get another chance to tackle the problem at a new meeting this week.

More than 3 000 delegates, including leading corporate and political figures, are to meet at the 19th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Madrid, which runs from tomorrow to Thursday after an official opening reception yesterday.

“It’s the Olympics of the oil and gas industry,” said Pierce Riemer, the director of the WPC. Read the rest of this entry »

South African local Chinese are in the “black people” which is designed to benefit previous apartheid disadvantaged groups. Are they are fully black now? Do they really benefit all the advantages of BEE Act? According to the report this morning, Chinese are not fully black.
Johannesburg - The National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) has slammed a high court ruling that defines Chinese South Africans as black and gives them the full benefits of affirmative action legislation, claiming the black economic empowerment (BEE) “cake” was too small to share. Read the rest of this entry »

It is common practice for your BBBEE rating to coincide with your financial year end. As your BBBEE rating is only valid for 1 year, this is the opportune time to seriously consider your BBBEE rating.As the leading empowerment consultancy in the industry we have the deepest experience in interpreting what qualifies, and what supporting evidence is needed, for your BBBEE scorecard. We have the knowledge to be able to provide you with the tools and information needed to build a comprehensive Pre-Audit pack for the rating process.

The Pre-Audit pack will help you to put together the qualifying data that will be needed for the auditing process. We will help you to understand what supporting evidence is needed for the rating agencies check list. By doing this you will understand what qualifies and what doesn’t qualify for rating. Read the rest of this entry »

If the South African government wants to see the country become successful in the global environment, it needs the backing not only of the citizens of the country, but also of all the other key stakeholders. These include investors, business people, the trade union movement, as well as all financial and socio-economic institutions. Strategic thinking, whether at national or corporate level, depends on the ability of a government or management team to create and then harness a willingness amongst people to participate in outmanoeuvring the efforts of other countries and/or companies. Read the rest of this entry »

It is important for a government to fully understand the competitive dynamics of the global environment if it is to successfully take the country and its people forward. A political leader who is able to think and act locally, but is unable to do so on a global basis, is a liability to the development of the country. Advancing a country’s interests is all about economic and social development. A government that cannot create the right kind of climate for coordinated development is failing in its duty — not only to its electorate, but also to every single stakeholder. More and more national stakeholders throughout the world’s nations are beginning to demand this from their political leaders. Scotland is a good example. It has a mature, service-dominated economy with a proud tradition in all aspects of human endeavour far beyond its size or population. Yet the Scottish business sector recently challenged the nation’s political leaders, who themselves often call for domestic firms to become more globally competitive, to raise their own standards and play a greater role in assisting the country to advance its global competitiveness.” Read the rest of this entry »

The strength of a country and/or a business organisation, and therefore the strength of its strategy, is created by its human capital. At the heart of strategic thinking lies the purpose of preserving the environment: at the macro-level, preservation of the economy, whilst, at the micro-level, preservation of the industry participants. Few firms think about this. Individual agendas focus on maximising profits and, in neo-liberal market economics, maximising shareholder value at the expense of social values. Yet contributing towards industry and economic preservation benefits a nation in the long term and gives it economic strength, as well as the wherewithal for competing on the global stage. Read the rest of this entry »

In the New South Africa, it is interesting to align these six points with the concept of political neutrality, at least in the short t_omedium term. As an emerging nation builds itself and seeks to create for itself a desirable position in the world’s economic rankings, its entire focus should be orientated towards that purpose. Nothing should distract it from achieving its goal. Its resources, both human and otherwise, must be channelled into creating the right kind of society that will provide prosperity to the citizens of the country Political and social distractions channel resources away from the efforts of global economic and business competitiveness. The leaders of the country must be concerned with their own nation first, before they can deal with issues in other countries. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s take a look at them and interpret each in terms of an emerging country like South Africa, which aims to become a competitive nation in the world rankings.

According to Sun Tzu, in a nation-state that is seeking to compete in the global arena, the development of a proper strategy is vital to the future welfare of the people of that country. Leaving a country’s economic future in the hands of a political manifesto may well satisfy the aspirations of a political few; however, the development of a non-aligned strategy has a better chance of serving a greater percentage of the population and taking the country forward in its economic growth. Read the rest of this entry »

Sun Tzu’s advice to make one’s position unassailable assumes critical proportions for an emerging nation like South Africa, faced with stiff global competition not only from the well-established and First World nations of the world, but also from other developing countries. The world’s more advanced and wealthy nations are deeply entrenched in the global system, and manipulate it for their own benefit. They virtually control it, and have often come under intense criticism for practising double standards, particularly in their application of such issues as, for example, international trade.’

Other emerging nations, as well as the poorer countries of the world, also want their slice of the global pie and their share of global resources. They too possess a desire to improve the standard of living of their citizens, thereby improving their position in the global (or at least their region’s) economic rankings. For any emerging nation to successfully play the globalisation game, there are a number of strategic principles, identified by Sun Tzu, that should be followed. Read the rest of this entry »

If South Africa wishes to become a highly successful emerging nation, one that can seriously challenge for position in the world economic rankings and have its business corporations develop _agreater sense of competitiveness, a change in strategic outlook at both government and corporate level is required. This aims to outline the kind of approach an emerging nation like South Africa needs in order to enhance its competitive prowess at both national and corporate level.

Before a home-grown business organisation in an emerging economy can achieve a higher level of competitiveness, the condition_sin that country have to be conducive to competitive thinking.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Wing says that, since the time of Sun Tzu, the major conflict experienced throughout the world has remained the same, namely the struggle for ideological supremacy and the control of resources.’ In nation-states, and especially in the current global environment, _competition takes place for people, materials, technology and/or financial resources. A key principle in making one’s position unassailable is for the government of the day to view its nation as a complete and interdependable entity, and to take steps to ensure it survives as such. Sun Tzu said that it is not individually, but altogether, as a single and complete entity, that the people of the world face survival or extinction.’ Read the rest of this entry »