ECOFIN

6 Responses to “News Updates”

1. Sarah Says:
   February 11th, 2008 at 11:51 pm

   Hi this is Sarah/China!
   I just read the first article on South Africa’s electricity problems and one line in particular struck me as interesting (and gave me a little bit of confusion as well) - the electricity shortages were blamed by the Minister of Energy in part by a “lack of interest by the private sector in taking up some of the country’s generating capacity.” I know that South Africa has enjoyed economic growth and is one of the most developed nations in Africa, but I thought it interesting that the nation would want their electricity run by a private company rather than a domestic one. I realize that private companies are often more effective (largely because they are in the buisness for profit), but that efficiency far too often comes at the expense of the environment. Is it then a more attractive solution for developing nations to invest into creating national companies that are in charge of the nation’s resources? Especially in Africa, a continent that has seen its share of the exploitation of its resources (the DR Congo, Sierra Leone), is it best for nations to encourage foreign investment into national companies and lessen the debt owed so developing nations can use loans from the World Bank and IMF to start creating buisnesses?

2. Zaq Rosen Says:
   February 15th, 2008 at 11:10 pm

   Hi, this is Zaq!
   There’s somewhat of an issue with the drawing of international funds though. With a private organization there are no dues required by the international community. What would actually be more efficient would be modeled more after the Oil Trading alliance between India and China. When mutliple countries, or regional blocks really, for an alliance in order to maintain manipulation of a particular resource, the private sector could easily be over-powered or bought out via nationalized interests that if seperated monetarily from government regulation, but not from the key legistlative or judicial review, could feasibly be jsut as efficient as the private organizations. The basic model then for commodities would more closely resemble Chinese economic ideology, which I’m positive you already understand.

3. Zaq Rosen Says:
   February 15th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

   Alright, it’s Zaq again,
   I was going through the links and came upon the grameen foundation one, the youtube link above. from there I followed a small series and found myself listening to some statements by a Mr. Yunnus, one of the Nobel Peace Prize winners. One of his main ideas is that for any one person, there best way to help them escape poverty is through the fulfilment of their own capabilities as a human being. This would entail allowing people greater freedom in being capable of chosing a job, in one way or another, which is a subsequent result of globalization (the argument here is that the more jobs that are invested in a country, the more opportunity) but for some reason this tends not to be the case. Why is this? What are some solutions to it? Help? haha

4. Germany Says:
   March 5th, 2008 at 11:19 pm

   Germany had always thought that creating more job opportunities would be a solution to resolving poverty since the lowered unemployment rate would affect a nation’s economy. Microfinancing organizations such as KIVA provides chances for people to start their own businesses to support their family. But according to Zaq, I guess that more job investments may not be the best solution and also wonders why and would like to seek solutions to that problem.

   ~Shawna and Serena

5. Azerbaijan Says:
   March 11th, 2008 at 5:11 pm

   Azerbaijan would like to agree with the fact that more job opportunities seem to be an ideal in developing a country’s economy. However, we would like to first point out the possibility that a poverty stricken country is much less likely to have skilled workers for these new jobs. Therefore, it causes businesses to have to invest more time and energy to train and create skilled workers, and they cannot return quite as much to the workers and community. Azerbaijan recognizes that job investments may not be the best solution, at least in the short run. We also would like to seek effective solutions to this dilemma, especially as it poses a challenge for globalization.

   -Hannah and Tommy, Azerbaijan

6. Zaq Rosen Says:
   March 12th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

   To everyone on this blog post, Yeah, it’s Zach again,

   Hey, Azerbaijan is correct, there is a certain lack of skilled labor in countries that come from the third world. It is for this reason that most emigrants from these countries actually end their imigration process as usually low paid and underly protected. regional migration in regions such as the Caribean and South America has led to a definite lack of workers even to be trained in these regions, and the truth is that in these countries with a large number of emigrants, there are relatively few incentives to remain in these countries as well. So yes, it means that in certain areas people must be trained to operate on a specialized level, but the alternative option is an unsustainable influx in neighboring countries and a lack of skilled labor still.

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