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Dr Chang autographing his book on ‘Transformative industrial policy for Africa’ to Mr Kobby Asmah, Political Editor, Daily Graphic, after the interview in Accra yesterday
Dr Chang autographing his book on ‘Transformative industrial policy for Africa’ to Mr Kobby Asmah, Political Editor, Daily Graphic, after the interview in Accra yesterday

Get out of narrative that culture impedes growth - Economist urges African states

A renowned economist, Dr Ha-Joon Chang, has argued that policies which promote rapid economic growth are not always the supposedly ‘good’ policies of free-market and free trade but also the ‘bad’ policies of protectionism, subsidies and state ownership as shown by the development history of today’s rich countries.

He has, therefore, challenged Ghanaians, and for that matter African states, to critically examine best practices from 18th century Britain to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in the late 20th century, to get out of the narrative that their culture, history and geography is rather impeding accelerated growth.

According to Dr Chang, who is also the Director of the Centre of Development Studies, University of Cambridge, accelerated growth had little to do with culture, history and geography but much more was dependant on policy and right policies mainly.

In an exclusive interview in Accra, yesterday, Dr Chang said, “It is vital that Ghanaians and for that matter, the people in developing countries, get over the narrative that they have the wrong culture, history and geography which is impeding accelerated growth.”

He recalled that South Korea, for instance, was once described as the “bottomless pit” but it had now emerged as a strong nation in the global economy.

In the view of the winner of the 2003 Gunnar Myrdal and the 2005 Wassily Leontief Prizes, policy was the most important thing for accelerated development saying “we are defined by what we do.”

Conversation with Chang

The author of several best-selling economics books and Reader in the Political Economy of Development at the University of Cambridge is in the country on an Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) invitation for him to engage stakeholders on policy options for accelerated growth. The conversation is on the theme: “Destiny or Policy? - Development Prospects for Ghana.”  The conversation will focus on examining policies that determine a country’s development prospects.

Legacies of culture, history

He said a lot of people had come to believe that a country’s future was determined by legacies of culture, history and geography.

He said though structural factors such as culture, history and geography were important, it was very marginal in the scheme of things and that it was rather policies that engendered accelerated growth.

He said Ghana, and for that matter, Africa needed to get out of its primary commodities dependency syndrome which created all kinds of fiscal and economic problems in the very long run and focus on manufacturing.

In the long term, Dr Chang postulated that there was the tendency for prices of primary commodities to fall and the produce could also be replaced with synthetic substitutes.

“There is always a danger if you solely depend on primary commodities because they tend to have more slow productivity growth”.

“We need to find ways to place focus on the manufacturing sector; it is not easy and there is no single magic bullet, but there is the need to sit down seriously and find out what is missing in the scheme of things so as to fix it,” he stated.

In so doing, he underscored the need to co-ordinate export and import policies, as well as build knowledge-based skills for rapid economic growth.

“We do not have one route solution; be wary of people or institutions who say this is the only solution,” he stressed.

Brief profile

Dr Ha-Joon Chang in addition to numerous journals, articles and book chapters, has published 15 books (five co-authored) and 10 edited books.

His main books include The Political Economy of Industrial Policy, Kicking Away the Ladder, Bad Samaritans, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, and Economics.

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