The Busiest Subway and Metro Systems in the World

Subways, also known as metros or the Underground, are an easy and economical form of rapid transit in approximately 160 world cities. After paying their fares and consulting their subway maps, residents and visitors to the city can quickly travel to their home, hotel, work, or school. Travelers can get to government administration buildings, businesses, financial institutions, medical facilities, or religious worship centers. People can also travel to the airport, restaurants, sporting events, shopping venues, museums, and parks. Local governments closely monitor the subway systems to ensure their safety, security, and cleanliness. Some subways are extremely busy and crowded, especially during commuting hours. Here is a list of the fifteen busiest subway systems in the world and some of the destinations that the passengers might be traveling to. It is ranked in order of total annual passenger rides. The Worlds Busiest Subway Systems 1. Tokyo, Japan Metro – 3.16 billion annual passenger rides Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is the world’s most populated metropolitan area and home to the world’s busiest metro system, with approximately 8.7 million daily riders. This metro opened in 1927. Passengers may travel to the many financial institutions or Shinto temples of Tokyo. 2.Moscow, Russia Metro – 2.4 billion annual passenger rides Moscow is the capital of Russia, and about 6.6 million people daily ride beneath Moscow. Passengers may be trying to reach Red Square, the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral, or the Bolshoi Ballet. Moscow metro stations are very beautifully decorated, representing Russian architecture and art. 3. Seoul, South Korea Metro – 2.04 billion annual passenger rides The metro system in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, opened in 1974, and 5.6 million daily riders can visit financial institutions and the many palaces of Seoul. 4. Shanghai, China Metro – 2 billion annual passenger rides Shanghai, the largest city in China, has a subway system with 7 million daily riders. The metro in this port city opened in 1995. 5. Beijing, China Metro – 1.84 billion annual passenger rides Beijing, the capital of China, opened its subway system in 1971. About 6.4 million people daily ride this metro system, which was expanded for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Residents and visitors can travel to the Beijing Zoo, Tiananmen Square, or the Forbidden City. 6. New York City Subway, USA – 1.6 billion annual passenger rides The subway system in New York City is the busiest in the Americas. Opened in 1904, there are now 468 stations, the most of any system in the world. About five million people daily travel to Wall Street, the United Nations headquarters, Times Square, Central Park, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, or theater shows on Broadway. The MTA New York City Subway map is incredibly detailed and complex. 7. Paris, France Metro – 1.5 billion annual passenger rides The word â€Å"metro† comes from the French word â€Å"metropolitan.† Opened in 1900, about 4.5 million people daily travel beneath Paris to reach the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, or the Arc de Triomphe. 8. Mexico City, Mexico Metro – 1.4 billion annual passenger rides About five million people daily ride the Mexico City metro, which opened in 1969 and displays Mayan, Aztec, and Olmec archaeological artifacts in some of its stations. 9. Hong Kong, China Metro – 1.32 billion annual passenger rides Hong Kong, an important global financial center, opened a subway system in 1979. About 3.7 million people ride daily. 10. Guangzhou, China Metro – 1.18 billion Guangzhou is the third largest city in China and has a metro system which opened in 1997. This important trade and commercial center is an important port in Southern China. 11. London, England Underground – 1.065 billion annual passenger rides London, United Kingdom opened the world’s first metro system in 1863. Known as the â€Å"Underground,† or â€Å"The Tube,† about three million people daily are told to â€Å"mind the gap.† Some stations were used as shelters during the air raids of World War II. Popular sights in London along the Underground include the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, the Globe Theater, Big Ben, and Trafalgar Square. Other Busy Subway Systems The metro in Delhi, India is the busiest metro in India. The busiest metro in Canada is in Toronto. The second busiest metro in the United States is in Washington, DC, America’s capital. Subways: Convenient, Efficient, Beneficial A busy subway system is very beneficial to the residents and visitors in many world cities. They can quickly and easily navigate their city for business, pleasure, or practical reasons. The government uses the revenues raised by fares to further improve the city’s infrastructure, safety, and administration. Additional cities around the world are constructing subway systems, and the ranking of the world’s busiest subways will likely change over time.

The Pain of Achieving the Good Life - 865 Words

The cost of the good life is personal as displayed in Akira Kurosawas Village of the Watermills, Martin Luther Kings Letter from a Birmingham jail, and Dr. Colburns common lecture Rosewood. The cost of the good life is the sacrifice of some sense of security with each personal choice we make and each action we take to acquire the good life. It seems that in America we are blessed with continuously evolving innovation that provides us with so many conveniences. However, it is these conveniences that deter us from the good life by clouding our sense of purpose in life. Once we discover the power of money, many of our goals and purposes in life are driven by the desire to attain money in an attempt to live a luxurious lifestyle. In†¦show more content†¦In this case, our sense of security is concentrated in our conveniences. Detaching ourselves from so many of our conveniences and desires by choosing to live a simpler and more natural life threatens our security of familiarit y, but it is a cost for living a good life. We need to look at ourselves as individuals but also recognize ourselves as a part of something larger. Being a part of society gives us a moral responsibility to help others in need. Responsibilities come with effort and action. The trade-off for choosing to take action is giving up idleness. Injustice is everywhere but little is done because many people arent affected directly and many of those who are arent taking action to address the issue. In the Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther king mentions that, whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. This is true as long as humanity possesses any sense of empathy that allows one to feel anothers pain. Suffering of one will perpetuate to others until it is eliminated because suffering does not end with time; it ends with direct action. In his letter, King emphasizes nonviolent direct action because violence is injustice itself and will only stimulate more violence. T he purpose of Kings letter was to emphasize the impossibility of obtaining any justice with taking action and acting immediately and directly. If we want to see change we cant be afraid toShow MoreRelatedThe Nature of Death Essay1508 Words   |  7 Pagesnature of death and its impact on the human psyche. Accepting these philosophies requires an inherent selfishness that cannot possibly lead to achieving a tranquil and essentially good life. Epicurus argues all good and bad things derive from a sensation of pleasure or pain. He advocated the absence of pain and the attainment of a happy, tranquil life. Achieving this state of mind includes expelling the fear of death, which he attempted to philosophically refute. 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Change Management - the One Right Way free essay sample

However the offer is often illusory, for particular change approaches usually apply to particular situations, and simple solutions sometimes ignore the complexities of real life. (Stace and Dunphy, 2001, p 5) To utilise a single change approach is to assume that all organisations, all situations and all internal and external variables and influences remain constant. It applies the same logic to all changes without consideration of the many and varied influencing factors. I generally agree with the statement presented by Stace and Dunphy but am interested in the reasons underlying the requirement for simple, easy and fast change interventions. Are managers and change agents lazy and only looking for simple solutions? Does management consider change unimportant? Do management really believe that a single solution is going to work in every case? What is behind this trend? Bold (2011) suggests that change itself is becoming the only constant or ‘business as usual’ in the modern business environment. With technological advancements over the past 10 years, organisation now have the ability to access, collect and process enormous amounts of business data very quickly. This has provided management with the ability to understand the current health of their organisational processes and track against set goals and targets quickly and accurately. Previously, managers may have waited for end of month or end of quarter reporting from all business units to be collated and presented to gain an accurate understanding of the current business position and gauge the results from previous decisions made. Now, when a manager wants to make a change, they want it implemented as soon as possible so they can assess the impact of the change. Due to the high amount of change occurring in modern organisations and management’s requirement for immediate solutions, I believe that pressure is placed onto the change agents to provide solutions, often without the resources or time to perform adequate analysis to plan and implement the best change approach. As Bold (2011) suggested, change is becoming ‘business as usual’ and management may expect change managers to be able to develop a change process (i. e. the one right way), in the way that other parts of the organisation develops other repeatable ‘business as usual’ processes. Corporate competencies for change management constitute the critical capacity that is needed to create a learning organisation which is flexible, dynamic and adaptable in a rapidly changing and volatile environment. (Turner and Crawford 1998) As recent as the 1990’s, research was being undertaken by Romanelli Tushman (1994) that proposed an alternate viewpoint. Their punctuated equilibrium paradigm argues that relatively long periods of stability (equilibrium) are punctuated by short periods of more radical, revolutionary change. I believe that most organisational change researchers would now agree that this is no longer the case and further progression into the information age has meant that very few industries operate within a long term, stable business operating environment. Although many different change models and approaches have been developed by academics, consultants and practitioners, none has yet to be accepted as a standard that can be used for all change interventions. Bold (2011) argues that there is no right or wrong theory for change management. It is not an exact science. However, through the ongoing research and studies by the industry’s leading experts, a clearer picture of what it takes to lead a change effort effectively will continue to emerge. Andriopoulos Dawson (2009) agree that in the case of organisational change, there remains considerable debate over the speed, direction and effects of change and on the most appropriate methods and concepts for understanding and explaining change. Kanter, Stein Jick (1992) found that it would be very difficult for a single solution or approach to meet all the types of changes required and to take into account all of the required aspects as organisations are fluid entities. In an attempt to provide a more broad solution, Stace Dunphy (2001) proposed a situational approach or framework for change. They argued that there is no single path to successful change implementation that holds true in all situations. This framework however has been criticised by Andriopoulos Dawson (2009) for neglecting the role of organisational politics and the internal power relationships within organisations as shapers of the organisational change process. Pettigrew (1985) presented a holistic, contextual analysis approach providing a multi-level approach to encapsulate the complexities of change management. Pettigrew argued that strategic change is a continuous process with no clear beginning or end point. However, Buchanan and Boddy (1992) argued that the richness and complexity of the multi-level analysis presented by Pettigrew, while comprehensive, it did little to simplify or clarify the processes of change and thereby rendered the research as largely impenetrable for the organisational practitioner. Change within an organisation is ongoing and involves many variables which are covered by different change models, processes and frameworks. Variables include the type of industry, the geographical location, the organisations size, the style of management leadership, the capability of the people involved, the organisational culture, the local and global economic environment, timing in regard to other events, the organisational structure and many more. This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but demonstrates the length and breadth of variables to be taken into account when assessing and managing change. Senior (2002) argues that the trigger for internal change is often in response to external influences which then links the internal and external drivers for change. Often, the change strategy or mechanism used by an organisation is chosen by the change manager and may not necessarily meet the needs of the organisation. This can lead to the change manager selecting an approach that may have worked before, that they feel comfortable with, or that suits their personality. This may not be however, what the organisation really requires. For example, a change manager may have had previous success utilising a consultative and collaborative approach which would take time to fully consult with all impacted parties while the organisation may actually require a fast, dictatorial type approach due to it losing market share which is putting the very existence of the organisation at risk. Kanter (1983) notes that managers sometimes make strategic choices based on their own area of competence and career payoff. A model of change strategies that seeks to develop our understanding of change processes is unfortunately restricted if it excludes considerations of anything other than management as some sort of ‘black box’ wherein environmental fit is sought. Stace and Dunphy argue that change managers need to develop a varied behaviour repertoire rather than remain fixed on a particular approach to change. They argue the compelling need for in our modern economies to create and build more dynamic and innovative corporations which can compete successfully in global terms. Remember that change involves people, is instigated by people and controlled by people. There are many internal and external influences and forces that affect change but the interests of the change agents themselves and their political interests must also be considered. You cannot expect a change manager to ignore their own self-interest when making rational decisions. (Dunford 1990) Stace and Dunphy argue that the critical requirement for longer term viability and success in the corporation of the future is the ongoing development of what is increasingly being referred to as organisational capabilities or corporate competencies. These are capabilities for the flexible initiation of new strategies and environmental responsiveness that reside in the corporation itself rather than only in the capabilities and skills of the individual members. This will allow organisations to respond quicker to changes and effectively make change management part of the organisational culture. Change would then be regarded as ‘business as usual’. Many of the change approach methods, tools and techniques proposed by researchers and practitioners have overlapping ideas and cover a lot of the same ground. Rather than working independently towards defining improvements to existing ideas or new ideas, it may be more beneficial to take a collaborative approach and create an international standard for change or a recognised body of shared knowledge that could be used as a guide for organisational change.

Peter Drucker free essay sample

Peter Drucker is considered the founding father of modern management. How did he influence the business of management? Discuss the benefits of Management by Objectives; discuss the criticisms. Peter Drucker influenced the business of management by being the first person to as he wrote, depict management as a distinct function, managing as specific work, and being a manager as a distinct responsibility. Mr. Drucker is also credited with creating the management consulting industry. For more than half a century, he was consultant to some of the largest corporations in the US, Drucker directly influenced a huge number of leaders from a wide range of organizations across all sectors of society. Among the many: General Electric, IBM, Intel, Procter Gamble, Girl Scouts of the USA, The Salvation Army, Red Cross, United Farm Workers and several presidential administrations. To leaders, students, and admirers everywhere, he is `the father of modern management and `the man who invented corporate America. We will write a custom essay sample on Peter Drucker or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page According to Forbes magazine. His ideas, expressed in countless books, made management a subject worth studying. He saw the task of modern management as making people capable of joint performance, to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. Peter Starbuck The Guardian. According to George Odiome who was one of Mr Duckers student , MBO is a process whereby superior and subordinate managers of an Organization jointly define its common goal, define each individuals major areas of responsibility in terms of results expected of him and use these measures as guides for operating the unit and assessing the contribution of each of its members. The MBO concept was popularized by Peter Drucker it is the most widely acceptable philosophy of management today. It is a demanding and rewarding style of management which is closely connected with the concept of planning. The Benefits of MBO (management by objectives) are; MOB ensures better and more effective management it forces management to think of planning for results, rather than merely planning activities. MBO force managers to think how the objectives can be achieved and what resources would be required. MBO provides the standards of control. MBO elicits peoples commitment for performance. MBO results clarification in organizational roles, structure and responsibilities of individuals for achieving the goals. MBO reveals organizational deficiencies such as overlapping of authority, ineffective delegation and communication. MBO helps in the areas of employee motivation, high morale, effective and purposeful leadership The Criticism of MBO (management by objectives) are; MBO is time consuming, increases paperwork e. g. training manuals, newsletters, instruction booklets and questioners. MBO has organizational problems creates more problems than it can solve. MBO develops conflicting objectives, sometimes an individuals goal my come in conflict with those of another e. g. marketing mangers goals for high sales turnover may find no support from the production managers goal for production with least cost. Under these circumstances individuals follow paths that are best in their own interest but which are detrimental to the company. MBO problems of Co-ordination, managers may face problems of measuring objectives when the objectives are not clear and realistic. MBO lacks durability the first few rounds of MBO are motivating later it tends to become old hat. New opportunities are lost because of individuals adhere to rigidly to established goals.

12 Angry Men Movie Analysis Essay Example

12 Angry Men Movie Analysis Essay Example 12 Angry Men Movie Analysis Paper 12 Angry Men Movie Analysis Paper Essay Topic: 12 Angry Men Course: HRMG6200 Organization in New Economy Assignment: Twelve Angry Men Movie The movie Twelve Angry Men is about the twelve jurors that could adjust their influence in a decision-making process for conviction an eighteen years-old boy, whether the boy guilty or not guilty in murdering of his father. It represents a perfect example for applicable of a work group development framework. It also has examples of influence techniques among a group’s members. This paper is looking at those specific examples in the movie and focusing in analysis the reasons why Juror 8 is so much more effective than others in the meeting. According to Bruce Tuckman, healthy work groups need to go through four stages of development: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. Forming define as members get acquainted and organized to select a leader, a given example for the forming stage in this movie is the twelve men were up for the first vote, engaged in social oriented behavior to become acquainted with one another. The lead juror introduced to everyone â€Å"why are we here. † Storming are power struggles and sub-grouping, given example here is one juror voted â€Å"not guilty† while other eleven jurors voted â€Å"guilty†. It formed a perfect conflict that led group members device by two sub-group, vote guilty group and vote not guilty group, seat back for digging deep into the provided evidences to make sure if they are worthy of declaring the boy guilty of the charge. Norming define as group chooses rules to coordinate interaction and facilitate goals, given example here is when the twelve men rejected the prejudice of a tired voting, six â€Å"guilty† versus six â€Å"not guilty. † Another good example for Norming is when â€Å"We nine need to understand why you three still think he is guilty. † Performing define as the group structure enables working together smoothly toward one goal. It is when they all agreed on only one common right answer â€Å"the boy is not guilty†. The twelve jurors were going through the four main stages of developing a healthy work group in the meeting even it seems complicated and needed high-intensity efforts from certain members. According the five Methods for Influencing Other Group Members use of reason, assertiveness, coalition building, higher values, and bargaining when Juror Eight said: â€Å"we are talking about somebody life here, we can’t just decide within five minutes, suppose we are wrong†, he used the youth human-being life’s mportant and the danger of a false decision as good reasons to force other jurors in analyzing the facts carefully. He then talks about the boy’s backgrounds for appealing to logic and rational thinking of other jurors. Juror Three was overt prejudice, hostility, and used â€Å"assertiveness† to influence the other ten jurors of jury provided an antagonist for juror Eight. Juror eight used â€Å"coalition building† method to seek alignment with other group members. He never says that he believes the defendant is innocent but his mantra throughout the movie was â€Å"it’s possible! referring to the reasonable doubt, which he convinced others’ thought. Juror Eight continued to appeal other eleven juror’s higher values by repeatedly reinforcing their moral and judicial obligation to convict only if there was no reasonable doubt. He challenged each juror to look at the facts more thoughtfully. â€Å"Bargaining† is offering an instrument exchange. Juror 8 used this method when he said: â€Å"I want to call for another vote†¦ If there are 11 votes for guilty, I won’t stand alone†¦ But if anyone votes not guilty, we stay here and talk it out. Twelve Angry Men incorporates the five methods for influencing group members. According to a leader’s framework for decision-making process in a study research at Harvard Business School in 2007, the framework includes discovering context ’s characteristics, fact-based management, doing the leader’s job, discovering danger signals, and responding to those danger signals. The scenario of the decision-making process in this movie is a complicated context, where cause-and-effect relationships are discoverable but not immediately apparent to everyone. There were possibilities of false testimony. Juror 8 was so much more effective than other because he was aware of the responsibilities of a juror and how important his decision on the eighteen years-old boy’s life is. The decision could send the boy to the electric chair for finishing his life. At the beginning, he was not sure that the boy was guilty but he was sure that the evidences provided are not strong and sufficient enough to proof the boy guilty of charge. He discovered the danger of a possibility that the provided proofs are not influential and need verified before any decision, the danger of other jurors could overconfident in their own solution or in the efficacy of past solutions. He tried to draw other jurors into analysis the evidence technically and making sure if they are worthy of declaring the boy guilty of the charge. He knows the unknown factors, analyze facts, and set goal for his decision. He arranged a similar knife and brought brainstorming with the evidences. He used experiments to force other members to think outside the familiar. He focused to his objective and responsibility. He projected himself unbiased and he was not working in self-interest. He used logical reasoning, leadership skills, and effective communications for influence others’ decision successfully. In conclusion, beside of learning the applicable of a leader’s framework for decision-making process and methods for influencing other group members, the movie Twelve Angry Men also showed its audiences factors that help in forming a productive work group. A productive work group should have necessary factors such as: A diversity group members from difference backgrounds and religions; A perfect conflict like voting â€Å"guilty† versus voting â€Å"not guilty† to helps in drawing member’s attention into group’s duties; An environment where group members are open and honest as the painter helped in protecting the old man’s speech, where members can question the process and the content as the watchmaker asked the baseball fan to give the right reason why he changed his vote but not just changed it because he tired and wanted to change for speeding up the process of this decision-making, where members recognize the role that bias plays in decision-making and void biased decisions, where members agree and disagree in the right way without forces as members changed their votes when they see any sense of false testimonies, where members realize that it is possible for one person is right and all others are wrong as the old man helped juror 8 by changing his vote to keep the group meeting going, and that group members always can learn from each other. Refference: 1/ Robbins Judge, Essential of Organizational Behavior, 10th 2/ Reginald Rose Sidney Lumet, Twelve Angry Men movie, 1957 3/ Snowden Boone, a Leader’s Framework for Decision Making, Harvard Business Review, Nov 2007

Losada Colada The Power of Positive Thought and Action

Losada Colada The Power of Positive Thought and Action The Losada Ratio As part of a project to put together a weekend training in March, I have been given a leadership assignment: Losada Colada! â€Å"Losada Colada†? Whatever is that? In the terms it was given to me, my assignment is to communicate 3 positive things for every critical one. Let me explain: The Losada ratio is defined (see The Power of Positivity, in Moderation) as the sum of the positivity in a system divided by the sum of its negativity.  Amit Amin, in the above-referenced article on happierhuman.com, reported that a ratio of 3.0 to 6.0 is highly correlated with high performance in multiple areas of life. The ratio predicts divorce rates with 90% accuracy and is also highly predictive of the profitability and satisfaction of teams in organizations. College students with a positivity score of 3.0 or above exhibited higher emotional and social health. While there are known issues with the mathematics of how Losada ratios have been calculated, the basic premise is indisputable: As long as you are not unreasonably positive/optimistic in a way that could be harmful to your well-being, more positive thinking- and communication- will make you a more productive person with better relationships and a more fulfilling life. The Positivity Challenge Why then, even knowing this, do I find myself often focusing on the negative? I had a lot of training growing up on doling out criticism, and in my adult life I have even given myself a job where it is my job to find what’s wrong with someone’s writing and fix it. This is a very comfortable activity and attitude for me. I do make an effort to provide positive feedback in addition to the negative: When making comments on a document I often insert, â€Å"Love this word!† â€Å"Nice phrasing here!† â€Å"Yes YOU come through so much more now!† But somehow I almost always feel like I’ve pointed out more wrong than right, especially when editing the work of my writers. As project manager for this upcoming weekend workshop  www.transformweekendtraining.com, I am being trained to create group enthusiasm. My assignment of Losada Colada is intended to make me better at doing that with a team of people who, like me, are doing this work not as a paid job but for their personal growth. Without their buy-in, our project will likely struggle. And so I keep my instructions in mind: 3:1 ratio positive:negative. The Impact of Positivity Even before this assignment, I trained myself to say at least one positive thing before saying a negative one; saying three is taking extra focus. I like it because it is allowing me to see more of the strengths in the people around me than I normally see. I’m not doing a perfect job with this assignment. For instance, one of my team members (I’ll call him Ron) was holding two roles and not doing either of them 100%. I called him to relieve him of one of the roles, thinking he would be happy that some responsibility was being taken off his shoulders; but he was clearly hurt. I looked at how I had communicated. Had a done my Losada Colada assignment? Nope. I called Ron back, told him I had messed up and not done my assignment, then appreciated him for 3 things. He responded much better to that communication. And when I told our group about the change in leadership, I made sure to appreciate Ron for all he had done well. Ron took more action on his other role than he had in the 3 weeks before this communication! It worked. LinkedIn Losada As LinkedIn members and networkers, we can all practice Losada Colada. I received the following note in my inbox a few days ago: â€Å"Thanks for connecting with me Brenda, and more importantly the wonderful tips. I love them 🙂 I will definitely will spread the word about what a wonderful person and incredible resources you offer. I just signed up for mailers 🙂 YES!† This note made me feel great! It even got me to investigate further into the website this connection was promoting. He was practicing what he preached! I’m going to keep doing my Losada Colada assignment for the rest of my life. I will probably get more out of it than a I would from a sweet drink on the beach, though I do enjoy pineapple and coconut (non-alcoholic) beverages! How do you envision bringing Losada Colada into your relationships, both at home and at work? What do you think the impact might be? If you try it and see results, please share your stories!

Economy and Infrastructure in South Africa Term Paper

Economy and Infrastructure in South Africa - Term Paper Example Similarly, the country’s GDP is continually increasing. In 2007, the country’s GDP rose by 5.1%. Analyzing the average income of the country reveals South Africa to be a moderately rich country with per capita GNP of US $5685 as per World Bank statement of fiscal year 2008. Thus, the country may be ranked as an upper-middle-income country. The South African economy is very much based on trade. More than 50% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is generated from trade. By adopting modern technologies for production purposes, the country’s products have become very competitive in the international market. The country’s exports mainly include minerals, agricultural produce, machinery, vehicles, electric appliances and chemical products. Gold is one of the most important exports of the country. However, the exports of other goods and services consist of one-fourth of the country’s total GDP generating from trade sector. Other minerals and chemicals contribute more than 30% towards the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) generating from this sector and the rest is contributed by other products such as tobacco, food, drinks as well as textiles. Imports consist of machines, chemicals and plastic products. The industry of South Africa is making up 40% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. The industry sector includes quarrying and mining. The mining sector still plays an important part in the country’s economic progress. However, the country has lessened its economic reliance on mining and raw materials export, especially that of gold, over the few preceding years. The agriculture sector of the country, including forestry and fisheries, makes a very small contribution towards the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country which is only 5%. However, it should be noticed that mining and agriculture is relatively more important for the economy of South Africa than the GDP figures shows. The reason behind it is that the