We sit at a pivotal time of global change.
At a time when commodities are at their highest prices ever, the dynamics of capitalism are changing to reflect this new age. The last 10 years has seen rapid growth and immense transformations in places that were once regarded as the poorest in the world, the most prominent obviously being Brazil, Russia, India and China… the BRIC countries.
People have taken the liberty to add South Africa to the equation, making it known as the BRICS growth block. This decade has seen more people being pulled out of poverty than any period before, mostly as a result of increased foreign direct investment into these countries, owing to faster information dissemination from the internet and newer forms of rapid information exchange.
Europe’s global trade and growth came over several hundreds of years, and America’s rise to power came over the course of about a hundred years from the industrial revolution. Japan took just over 40 years, Korea took around 30 years and India and China have seen their phenomenal growth over the last 10 years, which should continue at least over the next decade as well.
As a result of the ever increasing pace of information exchange, the global pace of growth is becoming overwhelmingly fast. There’s the constant search for the ‘next great frontier’, a race which continues to include more and more scouts with each passing year, all determined to discover the land of opportunity. The simple dynamics of business and economics will inevitably drive money to places with lower labor costs, cheaper land, and more resources.
In the ‘80s, shoes, clothes, and toys were all ‘made in Taiwan’, a brand that most of us still associate with inferior quality and cheap cost (much like China today), despite Taiwan’s revolution to become a reasonably developed nation, with good quality control measures and a more expensive and skilled workforce. After a certain while, it obviously became prohibitively expensive to manufacture many goods in Taiwan and surely enough, jobs moved to China’s newly liberal economy.
Now, as China has grown by leaps and bounds; the inevitable effects of inflation (no matter how much the country tries to fight it) have made China marginally uncompetitive in several industries, which in turn has led those industries to places like Vietnam. As the world becomes inevitably capitalistic in nature, products, food, money and jobs will move from place to place in search of squeezing further margins.
On this continent, slowly but surely the wounds of colonialism, and even worse, the dictators that followed, have started to heal, and places such as Angola that have finally embraced peace and capitalism are seeing growth like never before. One by one, countries will take a lesson from their successful neighbors like Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Namibia and Mauritius, to see what is really possible with good leadership and governance.
Inevitably, as today’s growth hubs reach their saturation points, and labor becomes prohibitive there, more people will turn towards Africa. With abundant resources, a large English speaking base and untapped opportunities, large scale growth will happen almost overnight.
Angola has taught other war torn countries that by co-operating with rebels, you can actually accomplish a lot more. And it converts a win-lose situation into a win-win situation.
The very nature of the wealth prospects will force national leaders to come to peaceful resolutions to make investment in their country more lucrative. Corrupt and poorly run governments are facing greater pressure from international sanctions, travel bans, and the rest which simply makes it unviable to hold a nation hostage for anything more than personal reasons in the long run. If you think about it; what good is a dictator’s wealth if he has nowhere to spend it, or if his foreign bank accounts are frozen?
Change takes time, and much in the same way that Chinese and Indians never believed that their countries would some day become global powers, the nay-sayers will always be quick to dispute Africa’s future.
Trust me though, the fate of African economics holds a certainly bright future, and some day in the not-to-distant future, Africa will awake to the awe of the world.
Quote of the day: “Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is - the strong horse that pulls the whole cart.” – Winston Churchill
Arjun Parameswaran is the executive vice-president of the Astutant Group, Florida, USA, a director of the R.D.P Group, Botswana and an administrator of the R.D.P Foundation, a Botswana centered charitable foundation. He can be contacted at
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Read more and post your comments online at www.arjunparameswaran.com
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