Madam Chairperson, I don't know if I am going to sing like that, but I think it would be good for us in considering this report that we are not selective in our interpretation and understanding of the contents of this report. And I say this to both sides of the House, because there are good outcomes in this report and there are bad outcomes.
If we look at this report and we look at the question of the Auditor- General, we are number one out of 144 countries, on the strength of auditing and reporting standards. [Applause.] That is something that we must stand on the roof and shout about. When it comes to legal rights index we are number one, when it comes to regulation of securities exchanges we are number one out of 144, and when it comes to soundness of banks, we are number two out of 144. So, we must not cut off our nose to spite our face when we speak on this.
Having said this, Madam Chair, in some instances we are number 144 out of 144, and that is where there should be cause for concern. These sectors are mainly in the areas of education, health and inefficient government bureaucracy. Let us not be like ostriches, bury our heads in the sand and think that the problem will run away. We have got to come up, as government and as this Parliament, with aggressive interventions in those areas so that we can go up the ladder from number 144 in some instances to being number 44, because that would be an improvement.
I think this report of the World Economic Forum needs to be taken very seriously because it is read widely; it is read by people who invest in our country. The foreign direct investments, FDI, comes mainly from people reading these kinds of reports, and we must not just rubbish it on both sides just for the sake of rubbishing the report.
Madam Chair, we are number one in sub-Saharan Africa, but is that good enough? Are we good enough in the education sector? We have not been delivering textbooks on time; there is a whole lot of inequality in education between the rural areas and the urban areas; there are a lot of infrastructure needs that are required; our hospitals are not performing up to capacity; our labour laws need to be relooked at to make us more competitive; so these are the areas and arenas that we should be focusing on. And I am glad that members of the executive, like the senior member, the hon Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, are here, because Cabinet needs to take this very seriously, together with the departments.
We would like to thank the hon member for raising this particular motion in the House. Thank you. [Applause.]