African services ‘slow and poor’
February 8th, 2010
Africa needs to grow service skills, said Ann Harrap, Australian High Commissioner to SA, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, HC designate to Lesotho and Swaziland, and ambassador designate to Angola.
Harrap said it would be ”interesting to watch how these countries address their serious skills challenges.” At the Paydirt Africa Down Under Conference in 2009 September, Harrap said human resource capacity constraints were very obvious in the public sector in southern Africa, including “departments that register your company, grant your mining licence or collect your tax.
“It would be important for southern African countries to seriously address those constraints if they want to attract more foreign investment and business.” Critical skills shortages are also an issue in South Africa and impact on the business environment. Delays in the issuing of work permits and new order mining licences can be directly attributed to capacity constraints, Harrap said.
“Some say that part of the issue is the emigration of skills from South Africa to Australia… There are skilled South Africans moving to Australia, but not as many as some would have you believe.
“Replacing those skills quickly is a policy challenge for the SA government and for Australia in our development assistance program with SA. It is important to also look at the benefits for both countries that derive from migration.
“The Australia-SA trading relationship is worth over A$4 billion per year, with average growth of about 11% year on year over the past five years. There are now 12 direct flights per week between the two countries and more than 100 000 Australians visit South Africa each year, significantly contributing to the local economy.
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