The emerging market world is growing faster than the developed world, and South Africa is also showing regional dominance like Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) do, says chief economist from T-Sec, Mike Schussler.

He notes that South Africa has three cities in the Mastercard Worldwide Emerging Markets Index released on Wednesday – which is a better representation than any other non-BRIC nation.

"BRICs – including South Africa - dominate their regions," notes Schussler. He points out that China has 15 cities ranked in the top 30 in the Index – the survey was conducted among 65 leading cities driving growth within more 30 emerging markets.

Dominating the continent

"Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban do dominate the continent," said Schussler.

"This is something we can use to sell the country with," he adds.

"SA is an island of wealth in sea of poverty on per capita income basis," he says.

"We can use this nicely to get more trade out of Africa e.g. African stocks list here in Johannesburg and we try to make use of that."

Schussler says that the emerging market world is bigger than the developed world for the first time, and this will "play out" during the current financial crisis.

Growth is quicker

"Growth is quicker than in the developed world," he notes.

But he notes that even emerging markets are feeling the heat of the global slowdown.

"Chinese manufacturing was growing at over 20 percent a year in terms of manufacturing output, then it went down to 16 percent a year ago or so and is now down to 8.3 percent."

"So the world is slowing down, but within that, emerging markets are playing a more important role."

Schussler points out that the JSE is the 22nd most traded stock exchange in the world and has more trades than Singapore.

He says one of the highlights of the survey is that Johannesburg achieved first place in terms of the business environment category.

He says SA has more than two-million close corporations and companies [not all active - about half are active] and that the growth rate in small businesses and companies has been "phenomenal".

"This has been made possible through things like the ease of registering property," he explains.

"Our financial market is one of our strengths – our ease of banking – and it is something we can build on."

Schussler points out that despite the criticism, many micro loans had helped small businesses. "There is the sophistication of financial markets and ease of getting credit, and the protection of investors and our legal system adds to our strength and that is something we have to go out and sell as a country," he says.

Cities rule the world

"Today, cities rule the world – power today in the economic sphere lies in cities, not rural areas."

"The important lesson is that cities are interdependent with the countries in this index.

"Money in rural areas does not have the same return as money spent in city areas," concludes Schussler.

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