Book review...Book review...Book review...
The issue of national development has always been an important subject among economists, practitioners of development, business executives, as well as a wide range of professionals, scholars and society as a whole. Indeed, its significance has grown considerably over the last few decades in individual countries and globally.
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This has largely been driven by increasing globalisation and the fact that deregulation of industries, increased competition, variations in demand, the application of new information, communication technologies and persisting wealth and income disparities continue to present formidable challenges to nations.
Consequently, nations, industries and organisations require new approaches to address these challenges. Moreover, the significance of national development as a source of comparative advantage among nations has grown immensely since the turn of the 21st century, particularly as we witness a new economic order with the emergence of new economic
Economic growth
Throughout the same period, economists, development practitioners, business executives, the world of finance and investment, business schools, researchers, science and technology experts have been emphasising how important it is for countries to focus on economic growth as a major contributor to national development.
At first sight, this message would appear to have hit home, because today, many countries claim to be putting in place policies and programmes that are aimed at achieving socio-economic advancement.
However, more often than not, national leaders, particularly in developing countries, tend to only pay lip service to the concept and practice of national development. They confuse attending to short-term political exigencies with what true development is all about, and the result is that they merely succeed in creating a veneer and a vocabulary of national development when in fact no socio-economic transformational changes are realised.
For economic growth to really take root, and ultimately have a significant impact on national development, not only must a country learn new skills, but often new attitudes have to accompany them to ensure structured and sustainable realignments of the productive sectors of the economy and society.
Key determinants of national development
Interestingly, this compendium of articles encompasses investigations into the impact of various contributors to economic growth and national development. These studies have been systematically conducted across various facets of the national fabric such as its leadership, governance, policy and strategy; culture, institutions and people; the public and private sectors; science, technology and infrastructure; natural resources; financial markets; branding and service delivery.
Given the increased turbulence in economies throughout the world and the changing dynamics of competition in the global environment in both industrialised and developing economies, I highly commend Professor Appiah-Adu and Dr Bawumia for their insightful approach in compiling, analysing and focusing particularly on the key determinants of national development and their implications for developing economies. The clarity of thought on their part and of the other contributors throws much light on the issues taken up by the book.
Undeniably, these are works with which every individual with an interest in economic growth and national development should be familiar and to which they should have ready access. The book will be a valuable supplement to advanced undergraduate courses in science, economics as well as business and management and to postgraduate courses in the aforementioned or related areas. I strongly believe that economists, practitioners of development, lecturers, academic researchers, business practitioners, management consultants, politicians and policy makers will also find these critical works useful in their libraries.