Phyllis D. Osabutey
24 July 2008
THE PRESIDENT of the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), Dr. K.Y Amoako has stated that Africa needs credible, committed and inspired leadership, who can take a long term view of economic growth and development to transform the African economy.
According to him, African leaders need to develop credible policies and strategies and as well implement them effectively, stressing, "many countries, particularly Asia have managed to do precisely that."
He explained that transforming African economies mean working to change the structure, organization, and management of the economies in a manner that would lead to accelerated, inclusive economic growth, employment, adequate health services, water sanitation and access to high quality education.
"It means ensuring that our economies can withstand or adapt to external factors and take advantage of opportunities offered by international trade and investments to improve our productivity and to spur further our growth", he added.
Dr. Amoako, who is also the founder of ACET was speaking at a public lecture on the theme, "Transforming African Economies: Lessons from Asia", which was co-hosted by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) and ACET in Accra on Tuesday.
In his view, Africa needs to draw upon the skills and experience of the many outstanding African professionals on the continent and in the Diaspora to address the continent's problems in relation to their unique circumstances.
"It's my conviction that we can achieve these objectives if we harness the talents and expertise of our people to design our policies and development strategies in a way that takes into our account our social, political and social realities", he stressed.
This was supported by Dr. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Laureate in Economics and a Professor at the Columbia University in New York, who delivered the lecture and noted that Africa must be bold to defile conventions that do not serve their interest.
He bemoaned that, in the past, Africa for the most part had dwelt on advise from outsiders and institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. He noted that he had never been content with the advises these Briton Wood Institutions give He believed that it was fundamentally important for democratic countries to have policy dialogues within their own countries and have their policies shaped by those from the country who know more about the country, stressing, "people like me can only share their experiences that they have had or seen elsewhere and leave you with a few thoughts that will have influence on how you think about the problem."
Dr. Amoako continued that to properly transform African economies, strategies must focus on modernizing agriculture, improving infrastructure, diversifying exports and increasing integration as well as educating and employing the youth, leveraging technology and daring to be bold to defy convention.
"The first seven tactics or strategies for economic transformation are well understood but daring to be bold and defying convention is often not stressed enough at all", he conceded, adding, "I established ACET here in Accra as an institution to provide high-quality policy analysis and advisory services to African governments."
The organization's goal is to assist government with the objective of achieving long-term growth and transformation of African governments while its mission is to play a pivotal role in eliminating policy and institutional barriers that impede sustained growth and transformation in Africa" to address the problem of defying conventions.
The Chief Advisor to the President, Mrs. Mary Chinnery-Hesse, who chaired the lecture, said the theme for the lecture holds great interests for Ghana because of the constant comparison between Ghana and Asian countries like Malaysia who gained independence at the same time as Ghana.
She said Ghana is on track to recapture her past glory "as we grope for the magic bullet which would propel our economy on a trajectory for accelerated growth", and added "we look forward to what lessons we might garner from the policies, strategies and prescriptions successful Asian countries have followed to attain the status of Tigers, so that Ghana can attain the status as the first, this time not tiger, but African Elephant."
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