VANDERBIJLPARK. – Do you have what it takes to walk away with the title of South Gauteng’s first-ever Economist of the Year? If so, you should enter the NWU Vaal and N-e-FG Economist of the Year competition today!
The competition represents a collaborative between the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Information Technology on the Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University (NWU Vaal), the Vaal Local Economic Development (LED) Warriors and N-e-FG (New-e-conomy Financial Group) in Vanderbijlpark. Together this dynamic trio of partners aim to not only increase awareness of regional macro-economic indicators but also to stimulate the interest of local professional economists and motivate youngsters to consider a career within the field of Economics. The media partners for this first-of-its-kind community project are 90.6FM, Vaalweekblad and Ster.
The driving force behind the Economist of the Year competition is Dr Danie Meyer – lecturer and researcher within the School of Economic Sciences and one of the founding members of the Vaal LED Warriors. The latter refers to a community organisation focused on the development and improvement of the Vaal Triangle’s local economic development and sustainability.
Dr Meyer explains that the competition – apart from serving several strategic imperatives, also represents a fundraising initiative aimed at supporting LED research related projects as well as supporting small businesses with start-up funding and ultimately support needy, but academically deserving, students with study bursaries.
Participants will have to predict the future value of eight macro-economic indicators and select the share that will grow the most in the period of prediction (1 August 2016 – 30 April 2017). The competition officially starts on 1 August with entries closing on 31 July. The participants’ inputs will be judged according to a point system. The closer the prediction is to the real end-value, the higher the points allocated per indicator. The growth of the share over the period – as indicated, will be added to the total point tally. The person with the highest overall score will be announced as the Economist of the Year.
The entry fee is R200 for business professionals. Members of the community (including school learners and tertiary education students) pay R50 to enter the competition. More information is available from Dr Danie Meyer at Daniel.meyer@nwu.ac.za Both business professionals and community members stand the chance of winning R5 000 in cash while the overall winner will receive an additional R10 000, sponsored by the N-e-FG fund managers.
