National productivity and competitive strategies for the new millennium Available to Purchase

Globalization and national competitiveness are popular issues in our economic policy debates. This paper seeks to clarify these pressing issues facing government, private sector and trade unions and focuses on alternative productivity and competitive strategies and benchmarking for competitiveness. It examines approaches to national competitiveness during globalization, the factors affecting the competitiveness policy framework and recommends a holistic national approach for competitiveness and higher productivity under globalization. This approach is to be based, among others, on an understanding of the nature of technological change in manufacturing enterprises so far. The pace at which enterprises acquire technological and other manufacturing capabilities is to be reflected in shifts in comparative advantage at the country level. Thus, national competitiveness can be proxied by manufactured export performance relative to competitors. For the economy to be more competitive and productive there are strong needs for rapid manufactured export growth, combined with sustained technological upgrading and diversification.