- August 20, 2020
- Posted by: AITRC 2
- Categories: News, Events, Blog, Report
Title: AFRICA PATH TO HI-SPEED DEVELOPMENT
Date: 20th August, 2020
Time 3:00PM -5PM WAT
This webinar will discuss how Africa can cut a straighter path and bring Africa’s development up to Hi-Speed.
Africa has made a lot of progress. Yet, 60 years after most of Africa gained independence, it is rather safe to say that Africa has not come as far, as the men and women who fought for African freedom hoped for at independence in 1960.
World Economic and Financial Surveys: World Economic Outlook Database, Recent projections indicate that several Sub-Saharan African countries will experience robust economic growth over the next five years. By 2023, around one-third of the region’s economies will have grown at an average annual rate of 5 percent or higher since 2000.
New research by the Brookings Institution’s Africa Growth Initiative and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) might hold the key to answering that question. According to the forthcoming book Industries Without Smokestacks: Industrialization in Africa Reconsidered, there is evidence to suggest that Sub-Saharan Africa is undergoing a more profound structural transformation than we think.
Now is the time for Africa to compare and learn from different paths taken since 1960 – not only across Africa, but also in places elsewhere, where we must dare talk openly about these things: In 1960, most Asian countries were at a starting point like Africa. Today, much of Asia is in many ways on a much higher path than Africa. We have a lot to learn.
Material improvement is vital. Money (=GDP) is needed to feed people, provide water, sanitation, nice housing, health, long good life, education, technology, investments, improve culture & leisure, and to protect the environment. A prosperous (and stable!) economy (=GDP) is also needed to give Africans freedom – the power to stay free from outside control. Also, where GDP-growth is not strong and solid in Africa, it is a good indicator of other problems to address.
In 1960, Korea suffered from a war with 5 million dead, and Korea’s GDP per capita was around half of Ghana. Though burdened with high defence costs, South Korea has today long since passed Ghana, and South Korea has even reached the level of Africa’s colonizers, the United Kingdom (and France) – see Figure 1. In her steep path, South Korea even preserved a social balance, the environment and improved farming.
In Figure 1, we compare South Korea with the biggest African societies, which represent a picture of Africa’s diverse development since 1960. No African country has achieved anything comparable with South Korea.
Figure 2 demonstrates, that many Asians now follow South Korea on a path surpassing much of Africa. In Figure 2, South Africa represents the “richest” part of Africa, Kenya represents Africa’s “middle-level”, and Burundi represents Africa’s “basic” level. Many Asian countries are about to cut their way up through all of Africa’s levels – from “basic” to “richest” – ref. Figure 2.
Asia (Figures 1 and 2) proves that a MUCH faster & better African development IS possible – and even necessary for Africa to be prosperous and free in a more competitive world.
Thank you.
