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Governments must focus on
productivity, education
Accra, July 8, Ghanadot/GNA - Professor Joseph Stiglitz, a
Noble Prize Laureate in
Economics, on Tuesday emphasized the need for African
countries to focus on
productivity, invest in higher education and infrastructural
development to enable
them to transform their economies and speed up the process
of development.
Delivering a lecture on the topic: “Transforming African
Economies: Lessons from Asia,” Prof Stiglitz said countries
must focus more on the objective of development by ensuring
that education help people to fulfil their potentials while
the gains of growth were equitably shared among the
population.
The Institute of Democratic Governance and the African
Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), civil society
organisations, organized the lecture to
provoke discussion on how to enhance the continent’s
economic development.
In a discussion spanning issues and challenges associated
with globalization in
today’s rapidly changing world, Prof Stiglitz asked
governments to play the lead
role by building effective systems and regulations that
would promote the rapid
growth of the economies.
He said all developing countries were in the process of
transformation of their
economies and this would require special attention and a
concrete policy shift on
how agriculture had been done in the past as well as a
change in economic structure
and management.
He said although Africa countries had shown remarkable
growth in the last few years, the challenge of rising food
and oil prices was threatening to undermine these growth
prospects.
This, he said, would make the sustenance of current growth
prospects difficult.
The economies of most African countries rely heavily on few
primary commodities whose prices fluctuate widely in the
world market.
Besides, these economies also suffer from inadequate
investment in the
manufacturing sector while Foreign Direct Investment inflows
are directed to the
extractive industries.
Prof Stiglitz said all these must be reversed to ensure a
structural transformation of the economies to accelerate the
pace of growth.
He said the state must play a catalytic role since
‘development does not only happen by itself.’
In addition, countries must use their local experts who
would nurture home-grown policies and strategies in dealing
with the future economic direction of the continent to give
meaning to African ownership instead of allowing ‘outsiders’
with little knowledge of the situation to dictate the pace
and shape their destiny.
Touching on the Doha Round of talks in the World Trade
Organization, Prof Stiglitz said developing countries were
likely to lose out on any agreement reached
because what it sought to be corrected when the Round was
launched is still being
forced on the developing countries.
One of these issues is the elimination of subsidies that
developed countries
continue to pay to their farmers, thereby putting the
developing countries at a
disadvantage.
“To me the so-called Doha development Round is like pouring
an old wine into a new bottle. In this circumstance no
agreement is better than a bad agreement,” he said at a
Luncheon with executives of the Association of Ghana
Industries.
Prof Stiglitz said the developed countries, having realized
the difficulty in concluding the round, had embarked on a
crusade of signing Free Trade Deals with various regional
blocs to enable them have the same access they have always
had.
He urged Africa trade ministers to remain wary of free trade
agreements, adding that “it is actually a managed
agreement.”
In this direction it is important to negotiate the
agreements and reshape where necessary to meet the
socio-economic development aspirations of the region.
There is also the need to act collectively as a bloc while
the political elites must be
prepared to take the tough decisions on such agreements when
necessary.
On the industrial sector, Prof Stiglitz said government must
play active role in accelerating the pace of industrial
expansion through the pursuit of macro-economic
policies that would insulate industries to enable them to
grow.
On the oil discovery in Ghana, Prof Stiglitz called for
transparency, openness and a strong system to track the
revenues as well as the building of a national consensus as
to how the funds generated would be equitably distributed to
ensure growth.
Prof Stiglitz arrived in Accra for an official engagement at
the invitation of the African Centre for Economic
Transformation (ACET).
Dr K.Y. Amoako, President of ACET, said credible, committed
and inspired leadership, who has a long-term view of
economic growth and development,
develop credible policies and strategies and effectively
implement them, was
required if the continent was to be transformed.
GNA
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