Powerhouse

CNBC Business calls SA “a world economic powerhouse” and finds its companies well-placed to weather the global recession. Quotable:

“South Africa is probably the leading economy in the world,” says Dr Martyn Davies, chief executive of Frontier Advisory, a research and strategy company working in frontier and emerging markets and director of the Centre for Chinese Studies at Stellenbosch University. “No other country of our size and economic ranking has produced as many globally successful Fortune 500 companies as we have. The only comparable country is South Korea. There is a phenomenal ability for South African companies to grow and go global from South Africa. No other comparably sized emerging market has been able to succeed in doing that; not even the Chinese, not even the Indians.”

The picture, from Media Club’s fantastic library, shows newly minted Mercedes C class cars lined up for export from East London.