Goodall dares experts on industrialisation
Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Goodall Gondwe has challenged African industry experts currently attending an industrialisation summit in Lilongwe that they should not waste time with rhetoric.
Gondwe was speaking yesterday at the opening of the 22nd Session of the Inter-Governmental Committee of Experts (ICE) of Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc).
He said Africa cannot continue to talk about industrialisation when on the ground nothing much is being done.
Gondwe said there is need for governments to move fast if the continent is to realise the full potential of industrialisation.
He said “I am almost 80 years old now and I have seen how much we have tried to industrialise, but we have failed. What normally comes out from conferences like these is the very same things that have been said before.
“When the colonialists left us in the early 1960s we thought we could industrialise faster but we failed. Maybe during that time many people were not qualified as you are, but they only had passion. Now that you are experts and well qualified in your respective sectors, we want to see results.”
The finance minister said he feels ashamed every time he goes to his village to see people living in grass-thatched houses and drinking water from same water sources with animals.
“It is shocking. I can have a television, good furniture in my house, but if the majority cannot access the basics, then we are failing in our job. This is how people lived 40 years ago,” said Gondwe.
He said what breaks his heart is that ‘almost all countries that have industrialised have used African resources, yet Africa is failing to utilise the available resources.
However, speaking on behalf of United Nations (UN) resident coordinator, UN Women chief for Africa Section, Anthony Ngororano, said Africa must put much emphasis on exporting commodities instead of industrialisation.
Citing a recent United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) report which indicated that Africa has been enjoying a prolonged commodity boom and sustained growth since 2000, Ngororano said the sub regions’s dependence on primary production of natural resources greatly impedes economic diversification and the creation of forward, backward and lateral linkages provided by industrialisation.
The meeting is being held under the theme Implementing the Sadc Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap: Options and Prospects, to find solutions to the challenges affecting the sub region and Africa as whole as far as industrialisation is concerned.
Industrialisation is the only way known to man (and woman) as a way to transform an economy out of stagnation and backwardness. Don’t worry Minister. In Malawi we are lucky. The industrialisation blue print for the Malawi economy is sitting on top of my desk here in London! This is proprietary information so please do not ask me to submit it for peer review (to APR).
Without industry our economies lack backbone structure. Economic growth is about capital formation but every year instead of capital formation our subsistence farms leave behind what, “mapesi”? We then ask why is the Malawi economy stagnating having grown a meagre $5bn since independence while small city nations such as Singapore grew $300 bn in exactly the same period through industrialisation. China suffered famine as late as 1960s when 15m to 30 million people are said to have perished. It is today $11,000 bn in GDP through industrialisation.
Africa has been hoodwinked to compete on agriculture and extractive industries (as its competitive advantages) that do not lead to productivity growth nor capital formation.
I will introduce the secret “holly grail” technological structures that transformed the US, EU and all developed economies for the prosperity of our nation. The country is ready and UNIMA has produced the requisite human resources needed to effect the transformation. We now just need the technical know how to provide the backbone structure as the driving force for our national prosperity! All Rejoice, Hope is on the way!