Chairperson, let me start by clarifying that the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Economic Development is a member of the ANC and represents its views in this Parliament. The fact that she is a communist is not an issue. I am not sure whether Mr McIntosh has not understood the Bill of Rights, which allows her the freedom of association. The tripartite alliance was forged and founded on a long experience of hard struggle for the liberation of our people and this country. You are now the beneficiary of that hard and long, difficult struggle. [Applause.] Then you stand here and attack the chairperson of the committee. Maybe you should explain where you come from yourself.
South Africa is ranked 52nd according to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index. It is ranked the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and therefore the most competitive in the region. It is placed third among the emerging Brics economies. Chairperson, let me attend to the criteria that were used to decide on South Africa's rankings, particularly labour market efficiency.
Compared to the rest of the world, South Africa is not doing well according to one of the criteria used to measure competitiveness, namely labour market efficiency. Its ranking on this criterion is 113 out of 144 countries that were surveyed. This is one of the criteria used to downgrade South Africa to the 52nd spot. However, it should be noted that on one of the very important criteria used, namely the macroeconomic environment, South Africa is positioned even better than some of the developed economies such as the USA, the UK, Portugal, France and Spain, to mention a few.
The opinion survey used by the World Economic Forum seems to be based on the opinion of a small number of South African business executives. Whilst the opinions of these executives reflect positively on what our government has been doing to create sound systems, sound institutions and functional markets, they however reflect negatively on the labour market efficiency. This is so because those who favour labour market deregulation often claim that our labour laws are the most rigid in the world. However, chairperson, the most authoritative comparative assessment of South Africa's labour laws, done by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, countries, concludes that our employment protection legislation is significantly more flexible than that of some countries that the World Economic Forum ranks better than South Africa.
One of the challenges we continue to address as a country is skills development, and that is why a National Skills Accord has been signed between the Department of Economic Development and the Department of Higher Education and Training to ensure that the skills we develop correspond to the required efficiency in the labour market. We must also intensify our efforts to vigorously manufacture value-added goods as identified in the Industrial Policy Action Plan and the New Growth Path in order to eliminate unemployment, poverty and inequalities precisely because labour market efficiency should, among other things, address these challenges rather than suggest that efficiency would be achieved only by labour flexibility.
The recent consultations between the government, labour and business led by the President of the Republic will go a long way towards addressing tensions between labour and business and therefore strengthen labour- employer relations and restore labour market efficiency. We also wish to commend the Minister of Labour, business, Cosatu and other union federations who are currently engaged in efforts to restore confidence in our labour market.
We are convinced that all of these efforts will, in the medium to long term, contribute to the efficiency of our labour market and convince the World Economic Forum to upgrade our country in world rankings. Thank you. [Applause.]