INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS, A GLOBAL CHALLENGE FOR AFRICA’S ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY  1.            INTRODUCTION Ladies and Gentlemen, honoured guests. Thank you for inviting me here today. The theme of this convention, "Promoting good governance, transparency and independence for sustainable growth", is an appropriate one at this time. This is a time when countries around the world are facing a new world order, where the boundaries are ill-defined and the rate of change is so much faster than it was before. In aiming for sustainable growth within this new world order, good governance and transparency are key. My task today is to talk about international competitiveness and the challenge this poses for Africa’s sustainable economic development 2. COMPETITIVENESS The concept of competitiveness, as used in the economic literature, has both a micro and macro dimension. The microeconomic use of the term refers to the ability of a firm to sell its products at a lower price, or produce products that are of better quality than those of its competitors. In this respect, productivity improvements are crucial. In a macroeconomic sense, traditional trade theory has drawn a distinction between "absolute" and "comparative" advantage, with international trade being driven by "comparative" advantage. Comparative advantages traditionally relate to endowment in factors such as natural resources or human capital. However, developments in economic theory over the last decade and a half have shown that it is not factor endowments alone but, among other things, the influence of economies of scale, technological innovation and technological learning processes that exert a significant influence on competitiveness. Competitive advantages are based on qualitative factors and can thus be influenced to a large degree by corporate strategies, public policies and individual behaviour. This in effect means that there is an important role for policymakers and other stakeholders like you in the economy to positively impact on the factors having a bearing on competitiveness. 3.            ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS IN AFRICA Africa is the poorest region in the world, with real incomes averaging one-third less than those in South Asia, which is the next poorest region. Africa is the only continent where poverty is on the rise. According to Statistics Canada, 340 million people, or more than half of Sub-Saharan Africa's population are living on less than US $1 per day. History has shown that social development is strongly correlated with economic development. Africa's economic performance in the recent past has encountered a number of obstacles. Over the past five years, growth rates in Africa have averaged around 3,5 per cent with Sub-Saharan Africa contributing less than 2 percent of the global GDP. While foreign direct investment is the most important source of external finance for developing countries, Africa’s share of foreign direct investment in developing countries has dropped from 25 per cent in the early 1970s to just 5 per cent in 2000. To compound matters further an estimated 40 per cent of Africa's own private savings are invested outside of the continent. Over the next couple of years, Africa’s economic growth is expected to increase from the current level of 3,5 per cent to around 4-5 per cent. This minor increase, while very welcome, is still drastically below the levels needed to make a meaningful contribution towards overcoming the social and economic challenges confronting the continent. The World Bank estimates that a five per cent annual growth rate is needed just to prevent a rise in the number of poor people on the continent. The challenge for African countries is to create the right conditions for high economic growth and to ensure that this economic growth is equitably distributed so as to improve the welfare of people living in severe poverty. This challenge can only be overcome if there is a concerted joint effort by all stakeholders, namely government, business, labour and civil society. The world economy in the 21st century dicta