Business Leaders Point To Lack Of Skills

21 Feb 2013

Although above BRICS average of 36%, South African business leaders cite lack of skills as one of the major constraints for the growth of the economy. Asked what barriers or constraints were affecting their business growth, most of the leaders cited a lack of skilled workers (47%) as the key growth constraint. In line with BRIC business leaders, 42% of businessmen agreed that overregulation and complex red-tape also constricted their businesses.

The other common constraint pointed out included post-recessional blows, nationwide strikes and instability in the mining sector. Additional issues, particularly political insecurity, regulatory concerns and public policy issues, are putting pressure on the stability of South Africa’s business environment.

Just about half of the business leaders indicated that uncertainty about the future political direction of the country was impacting on their future business decisions. They admitted they were delaying important business decisions. A quarter of them were toying with the idea of flight of capital offshore or to an alternative economy.  Socio-economic factors such as crime and corruption, the lack of available skills in the current workforce and poor government service delivery were the other issues raised by the business leaders.