+1 daktari, we need to develop a high afinity for data driven interventions. We cant ignore research in this day and age. On Nov 19, 2013 9:41 PM, "Bitange Ndemo" <bitange@jambo.co.ke> wrote:
Mark, At independence literacy in Kenya was below 20 percent. This is why Jomo Kenyatta made it a priority to deal with ignorance, poverty and disease. Today literacy in Kenya is approaching 90 percent but we still import bicycles. We import Kitenge and other African prints from the Netherlands. Why is cheaper to import from Netherlands where wage levels are higher than Kenya?
This is because we theoretically dismiss everything without the benefit of science (data). Let us do it and if we fail, we shall have learnt some lesson. Whilst you can sue a structural engineer for professional negligence, you cannot sue an economist for the same. That is why I said that we defy economists since their guess is as good as yours. Do not look at a 40 million market. Look to the 1 billion market in Africa. Economists have been failing us since time immemorial. They failed Hoover. They failed Africa with the structural adjustment programmes.
If this thing called comparative advantage worked, then steel producers would be the best car makers. But we know this is not true since Japan a non steel producer makes cheaper cars than UK yet UK has had plenty of steel. We must be good at producing something then figure out how we sustainability be competitive. If we do not try, we shall be like that person hoping to win lottery without buying the ticket.
Ndemo.
I agree with Adam albeit partly. Running to make everything under the sun is no a smart move. However building horizontal industries where products from one industry feed another and by products are the base of another shoulfd be encouraged. Building spare parts for local cars is an example.
A knowledge economy is a good foundation but we still need to build and make stuff. e.g Swiss chocolate, german cars, American Missiles, Chinese iPhones etc. Am yet to see a stable economy that doesn't manufacture and export physical goods.
On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 10:03 PM, Adam Nelson <adam@varud.com> wrote:
The first sentence does not lead to the second and third:
"We cannot have high unemployment, and at the same time import clothes from Sri Lanka or mitumba, when we can grow cotton and make our clothes. We must defy economic explanations on what works and what does not work. If we deployed thousands of youth digitizing land records, we would reduce caseloads in courts, become more efficient, and create more wealth to grow our economy."
Kenya should go towards counter-cyclical employment of youth doing productive infrastructure work: being teachers, building railroads, digitizing land records, etc...
However, you can't forget Adam Smith who talked extensively of Comparative Advantage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage). Sri Lanka (or really Bangladesh) has a far more economical solution for producing cotton clothing than Kenya has. This mostly has to do with the port of Mombassa being a stranglehold and the fact that a 40M person economy (Kenya) doesn't have the same economy of scale as a billion person economy (a guess at the number of people a Bangladeshi factory can export to easily).
Kenya is a small country and a small economy and if it wants to bring in more money and reduce unemployment, the solution is around creating an amazingly well-educated population and doing more knowledge work - not producing more clothing.
-- Kili.io - OpenStack for Africa: kili.io Musings: twitter.com/varud <https://twitter.com/varud> About Adam: www.linkedin.com/in/adamcnelson
On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 9:21 PM, Kivuva <Kivuva@transworldafrica.com>wrote:
Dr. Ndemo has struck a cord that has been played in this list countless times before. I remember him saying in another thread "you cannot have unemployed youth yet we have countless garbage lining our streets and estates!"
His argument on us importing cloths yet we can do it here is basic economic that any country can master. India went that way through the leadership of Mahatma.
But Dr. Ndemo, in the previous administration that you served so ardently, the government shipped billions worth of capital on works that could be done by Kenyans. I'm talking about the massive infrastructure development that took place in the last 10years. That capital could have done our unemployed generation justice if it was utilized here home. I believe Kenyans can build decent roads, brides, buildings and ports. What happened to national pride? It's the same argument of importing cloths or planting cotton and producing our own garments.
We're still not out of the woods yet, remember the Korean firm implementing the PKI?
My cent-less
On 18/11/2013, Dorcas Muthoni <dmuthoni@gmail.com> wrote:
A good piece by Dr. Bitange Ndemo
*We must be more pragmatic to resolve Kenya's high unemployment*
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/blogs/dot9/-/1959700/2077756/-/oodsogz/-/index....
-- Muthoni
My Blog: http://rugongo.blogspot.com/ -------------------------------------------- Mahatma Gandhi once said:-
First they ignore you, Then they laugh at you, Then they fight you, AND THEN YOU WIN!!!
-- ______________________ Mwendwa Kivuva twitter.com/lordmwesh kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/adam%40varud.com
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at
https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/mwangy%40gmail.com
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
-- Regards,
Mark Mwangi
markmwangi.me.ke _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at
https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and
bandwidth,
share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
University of Nairobi Business School, Lower Kabete Campus
_______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
Unsubscribe or change your options at https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/otieno.barrack%40gmail...
The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth, share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.