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Study finds strong link between mobility, information sharing and socioeconomic wellbeing

22nd February 2013

By: Schalk Burger

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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There is a direct correlation between the mobility of people, specifically their ability to move freely and seek opportunities, as well as their connectivity to communications and information sharing, and their socioeconomic wellness, a study commissioned by information technology mobility firm Citrix has found.

“Even modest improvements in labour mobility, which can be achieved by improved public transport and communication technolo- gies, can add several percentage points to gross domestic product (GDP) growth,” says Gordon Institute of Business Sciences study author and Cannon Asset Managers chief information officer Dr Adrian Saville.

The study profiled 140 countries over 15 years to determine the changes in the ease of movement of trade, people and the connectedness of society to share information and knowledge, and how these related to the socioeconomic prosperity of people. The results indicated a direct correlation between high mobility and connectivity, and socio- economic prosperity.

“This is promising because set-top boxes, for example, in homes can potentially connect many more households in South Africa to the world, enabling people to have more socioeconomic mobility, especially the poorer sections of the population. But there are challenges and delays with regard to communications regulations in South Africa hampering our ability to improve the welfare of people,” notes Citrix South Africa country manager Sean Wainer.

The results of the study showed that South Africa is in the middle range of mobility and connectivity and that the prosperity of its people is also average, compared with the high and low levels of prosperity of people in the other profiled countries, says Saville.

However, while South Africa is well inte- grated into the global economy and has improved the connectedness and mobility of its people, it has been unable to match the growth of its economy, which has grown three-fold since the 1970s, with a commensurate improvement in the socioeconomic prosperity of its people.

“This is partly because the mobility and connectivity of individuals in South Africa are average and very uneven. As the economy grows, people are not employed and inte- grated into the economy, partly because there is a lack of mobility among its people (citizens tend to remain near to where they were born). The lack of connectedness and communication also prevents them from being integrated into the economy,” explains Saville.

If countries improve the mobility and connectivity of their people, an immediate effect is that more companies are established because people are able to move to where opportunities exist and can share the information and knowledge that enable them to take advantage of those opportunities. Immigrants are also 30% more likely to start a company than local people.

South Africa does not have an education crisis. There are many free sources of information available worldwide, including the Gutenberg Project, which has a library of more than 40 000 books, and the Khan Academy, which provides access to more than 2 000 academic courses, argues Saville.

“South Africa has a mobility and connectivity crisis. Studies of the Khan Academy showed that pupils who performed below the average score in mathematics caught up to their fellow pupils within two years by having free access to materials and content from teachers and institutions worldwide,” he explains.

South Africa’s teaching methods are outdated, and modern education techniques include watching lectures at home, with fewer disruptions by individual learners, and then doing work at school with other pupils and where the teachers and other pupils are available to identify and help them with problems.

“Individual mobility drives increases in macroeconomic mobility. Civil society defeated apartheid. It should now aim to defeat the lack of connectivity,” he adds.

Increased mobility and connectivity affect income exponentially; with a modest increase in mobility, substantial gains in the welfare of people are realised.

A modest 5% increase in relative mobility can improve South Africa’s GDP per person by 40% over a period of 10 to 20 years based on the experiences of other economies, such as Chile, Malaysia and South Korea, concludes Saville.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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