WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-04-06 Time: 14:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
By Akwasi Fredua
A member of the United Nations Committee on Development Policy, Prof. Alice Amsden, has tasked African countries to move away from what she described as the World Bank’s “One policy fits all approach” to the Oil Producing and Export Countries (OPEC) model if Africa wants to achieve export competitiveness.
She explained that members of OPEC have an intimate knowledge and understanding of their own economies and devise strategies on production and through these methods the group has done very well economically even though many of its members started as debt-ridden poor countries just like all African countries.
“OPEC has a strong business model which is based on a national oil company that is professionally managed. This model is being reproduced in Latin America as the Bolivar initiative under the leadership of Venezuela, although hatred for Chavez blinds researchers to the benefits of regional oil cooperation”.
She was speaking in Accra at the first Africa Regional debate under the auspices of the World Bank. It was under the theme “The Meaning of Export Competitiveness and How do Countries Achieve it in an Uncertain World”
According to Prof Amsden, Africa’s sectoral distribution of employment in 2007 was highly skewed by world standards, with 65% in agriculture, 25% in services (mostly traditional) and 10% in manufacturing, including raw materials processing.
“This compares with 38% for manufacturing in East Asia and 26% in Latin America and the Caribbean, against which Sub-Sahara African countries would have to compete in world markets”.
Alice was of the view that most African countries are still stuck at a stage of absolute advantage and not comparative advantage, and must nurture new sectors through demand side, trade, employment, industrial and fiscal policies before it has something tangible to supply in world markets to harness trade for development.
She cited leading exporters in the developing world such as Korea and Taiwan, and later Thailand and Indonesia, and still later India and Brazil for becoming exporters of products other than traditional raw materials due to their adoption of the import substitution approach which poor countries can emulate
She said Saudi Arabia did well to have nationalized companies and established local industries which gave her more room to develop their own skills.
She maintains that the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), one of the world’s leading manufacturers of chemicals, fertilizers, plastics and metals has acquired a General Electric chemical plant in China which will help her learn innovative ways to create export competitiveness, by blending local expertise with foreign ones.
She said the managerial and technological expertise of import substitution firms in Asia gained them a business reputation and contracts with American firms searching for a lower wage locale.
*Addressing the issue of brain drain, Alice proposes that Africa needs to tap into its numerous intellectuals who have studied and worked abroad, but also to create an even playing field so that local expertise and skills are not undermined when such people are integrated into the system.
Former CEO and Chairman of Unilever Ghana Limited, Mr. Ishmael Yamson, noted there is always a lack of focus and clarity in Africa as to where to build export competitiveness, and argued that unless there is domestic competitiveness and mass production for the local market, export competitiveness cannot be achieved.
According to him, Africans countries are short term in their visions and that they do not have any sustained long term visions like their Asian counterparts.
Original date published: 6 April 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201004060670.html?viewall=1