Enhancing competitiveness in the South African manufacturing industry through human development focus areas

Abstract

The South African manufacturing industry faces the dilemma of having to identify policies whid"I will improve SA's competitiveness as well as levels of labour absorption. The researdl attempts to identify the human development focus areas required to develop a national framewori<. for improved competitiveness in the South African manufacturing industry. Quantitative data analysis compared SA's levels of competitiveness and human development to 72 developing and developed countries. Qualitative personal interviews were conducted in the automotive, chemical and metal and steel industries to answer the research objectives. Research findings include that developed and developing countries respectively had average HD\ scores of 0.9118 and 0.7783 compared to SA's 0.658. Human and knowledge resources such as quality of mathematics and science education, availability of scientists and engineers, quality of public sdlools were examples of factor conditions whid1 created competitive disadvantages for SA The lack of engineers, artisans as well as IP in all three industries, were found to be limiting factor conditions. Labour legislation is affected by the chosen industrial policy; SA has to focus on flexible labour policies. HIV/AIDS negatively impacts on human development; policies need to address both awareness and dlanging attitudes towards the pandemic. A framework for enhancing competitiveness was developed by linking the stages of competitiveness to human development and related factor conditions, as well as depicting the impact of strategy, structure and rivalry. This study creates awareness of the link between competitiveness and human development as well as the important role of the South African manufacturing industry.