Lessons from Asian tigers that you won’t hear from political leaders

In Summary

• Even good economists are not immune from misunderstanding economics.
• The economy is growing at five-and-a-half percent per year, which, we are told, is quite good.
• It is a matter of public record that export-led industrialization was the engine of East Asian Tigers’ economic takeoff.
• A garment factory in Naivasha has to transport the fabric and finished product 1,200 kilometers back and forth from Mombasa.

I was recently called by a reporter to comment on an article he was writing on the findings of a study by a group of Japanese economists faulting “our economic model” (Japan scholars punch holes in Kenya’s growth model” Business Daily, July 25). I have not seen the study, but the gist of it is captured by the statement attributed to one of the lead authors to the effect that our economic growth “has not been broadly based in terms of poverty reduction through employment creation.” The study reportedly also flags the weakening of our manufacturing sector and stagnation of agricultural productivity. You can imagine my bemusement as I listened to the reporter explaining to me what he seemed to think were novel earth-shaking revelations, but which, as I demonstrated to him in considerable detail, are the very things that I have been speaking and writing about a week in week out for as long as I can remember. By DAVID NDII Source: Daily Nation Read More]]>