College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2020 4 Prof Daneel van Lill, Executive Dean: College of Business and Economics Executive Summary Of particular importance to the CBE is how COVID-19 accelerated the impact of technology on the world of work and reimagining the profile of future graduates flourishing in the field of economics and business. overview The year 2020 provided ample opportunity to deepen knowledge and practice of the art of agility – in short, to respond to the College of Business and Economics (CBE) stakeholders’ changing expectations, while maintaining a solid good governance and operations backbone. The wisdom of Martin Luther King Jr features among the jewels of change leadership, saying: “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward”. At a global level, COVID-19 forced global economies into reverse gear. The GDP growth of the Russian economy (buffered by energy exports) contracted by some 3%, followed by the USA (-4%), Brazil (-5%), the Eurozone (-5%) and India (almost -7%). China was the only exception (+2,3% GDP growth) as a result of having gripped the pandemic in its early phases. The economy of our beloved country was devastated by a drop of 7%. In comparison, a scenario 5% worse than the impact of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis. South Africa’s high state of inequality fuels the contestation of resources (e.g. taxation, expropriation, corruption, crime), which in turn discourages the investment necessary to accelerate job creation and reduce inequality. Fiscal redistribution through social assistance has redressed the rise in inequality since 1994; however, it is now constrained by a tight fiscal space. GDP per capita is now at a level last seen in 2005.
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