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Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Explaining our Journey into Recession: Nigeria's Trade with the rest of the World III

      The rallying point for the East Asian countries that facilitated their rapid economic growth was 'export push strategy'. Among other factors, the East Asian success stories pushed for macroeconomic stability and low inflation; they also avoid deficit financing at some stages of their development story. They do all they could to accelerate export including using preferential treatments, soft credits, protectionist policies, currency devaluation. Buhari government aim at reviving the economy should not just stop at supporting local firms to produce for domestic consumption but must include export push as done by the East Asian success stories. In both the developed and emerging economies, one barometer widely use to measure health of an economy is export. Export is at the heart of German economy leadership of the euro area economy, likewise the extraordinary performances of both Japaneses and Chinese economies. We can barrow a leaf from both the US and Germany where states and regions have specialised in exportation of specific commodities and services. In Nigeria, for example, Kano shall start by exporting Agro-allied products such as processed foods, Shoes, and Garments as well as retails services; Lagos can specialised in exportation of financial services, and electronics; while Port Harcourt specialised in petrochemicals.  Federal government must find ways to rekindle export rivalry between the 36 states of the federation including allocating export quotas to be filled by each state. The  main difference between the economic strategy of China and India from 1980 to 2010 is very clear to the observers of the region; while China aggressively push export growth, India on the other hand emphasized on producing for its domestic market. Today we all know who is the winner, China has moved hundred of millions of its citizens out of poverty while India's population remain one of the poorest in the world.

     The case of Japan and South Korea is worth mentioning here, these two countries are not very much endowed with natural wealth like most African countries, but that notwithstanding they were able to import the raw materials they need, process them into finish goods and export them. There example is a case of what is called 'forced growth'.  In the case of South Korea, at the end of the Korean wars that led to the creation of today's North and South Korea, almost all of the industrial capacity of the Korean nation before partition were located in the North. Thus, after the war South Korea was left with nothing but agricultural lands; but now compare where the two countries are today - South Korea is a developed economy while the North is a developing economy. Innovation and entrepreneurship are at the center of Israel successes over the last decades. Small firms that were established as start ups with contributions from academia, military, and business later turned to become export power houses, exporting everything from security software, microchips, to agricultural outputs. The successes of the US in information technology can rightly be linked to small businesses (start ups) established in Silicon valley in the 1970s and 1980s. In the last two decades, these start ups have become the engine of US economic growth, accounting for large percentage of total US exports to the rest of the world. The great Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, for example, see economic development as synonyms with innovation, without technological innovation there would be no development. But, the kind of development Schumpeter was talking about can only be actively promoted by a serious government, which is the case in the US, Israel, Taiwan, South Korea, Denmark and many other developed nations. Schumpeter also emphases the role played by entrepreneur in all these, who is the innovator that make it all happens. Thus, at the end everyone will see that entrepreneurs are the back bone of export growth around the world.

      In most times, in the management of foreign exchange, it is much easier and practicable to use manage float than fixed exchange rate system, as it is not easy to know the actual rate that brings both internal and external markets into equilibrium.  The amount of human and material resources that will be devoted to the task of determining fixed exchange rate will then be put elsewhere in the interest of the economy progress. Multiple exchange rates do no one any good, CBN shall go for single exchange rate for every one with interest in Forex . Multiple exchange rates encourage corruption and inefficiency. Some of the problems we are having today with our foreign exchange can be linked to the activities of speculators who hoard Dollar thinking they understand very well the mind game of Buhari and his economic advisers. As recent discoveries by EFCC and other security agencies have shown, a lot of Nigerian elites have buried millions of Dollars somewhere in their houses, farms, and other properties; which contributed in no small way to the scarcity of Dollar we are facing today. Nigerian banks cannot be said to be innocence in the speculative attacks on Naira, either on their own or in collaboration with some powerful elites Nigerian banks have been working to undermine Naira to their own advantage. We all remember what happened during former President Babangida military regime's deregulation of the economy, when virtually all our banks abundant their primary assignments and become overnight Bureau De changes. But no matter what, Buhari government must also control inflation in order to establish the needed economic stability for healthy economic growth. CBN must double on it current effort to subdue inflation including stabilizing the foreign exchange market and reduction in interest rate. Buhari government push to revolutionarise our agricultural sector shall be encouraged. Agricultural export shall provide a short term solution to our over dependence on crude oil export.