The IMF has released its periodic country report on Lesotho. Overall it sounds positive on the performance of the economy as well as the medium term outlook. You may have a look at the full article posted on the Mail and Guardian edition of 15 November 2006 or follow this link
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=290012&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__business/
6 comments:
If one reads the report carefully it looks like the major risks facing our economy are:
(a) its dependence on AGOA exports, namely textiles targeted for the American market. This is not based on competitiveness, rather it is based purely on political considerations (democracy, human rights perceptions etc.). Unfortunately, in the long run costs, quality, agility etc. will determine the sustainability of the exports
(b) Revenue collected from Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) may at anytime fall. When this happens alternative sources will have to be identified.
And of course many more....
It would be interesting to get the opinion of some of Basotho economists on the issues raised by this report.
I haven't read the report as yet but i will shortly but here's my two cents worth:
Nkokoto we need to diversify our economy...we are too reliant on the textile sector and there's no way we can compete with the Indians and Chinese on that score (this is why after AGOA phases out in 2008 ha bo rona ke naheng haeba we have no alternative plan in place) we need to look into developing other sectors....services (e.g call centres) tourism (i mean really!) etc
Re tena re khafisoa hakana tjena hobane our sources of revenue (e.g. SACU) and miner's remittances (and otehr skille professions) and so on are all drying up/ at best are unrealible joale 'muso has decided to tax Basotho to death...joale i ask myself if we are not getting enough revenue from the Water Project and our diamonds...joale rona we have given these resources away for next to nothing...what other laternative source of revenue do we have?
These are some of the things we need to think about for the 18th neh?
eish! what's wrong with me and my bad spelling?...sorry guys! i think i need to go on leave :-)
Thope, you are spot on. In short, the report is saying exactly what you are saying even though it has not articulated the message in such an eloquent manner as you have done.
The Economy needs diversification, period. And we should look at labour intensive but high value services such as call centres and data processing centres.
Ea, this is a good agenda item for the 18th.
I do agree with you guys that we have to look at alternatives, and to my thinking these can be many. We are giving away almost for free some of the precious resources such as minerals (diamond) natural resources (water). If it is so difficult to reverse that situation then maybe we should tighten screws on the alternatives so that they benefit the nation.
i am not very much familiar with call centres and data processing but I trust your judgement on that one. Tourism, is definetely likely to boost the economy immensely if properly done. I even wonder are our missions abroad really marketing us in such a way that people would like to leave Europe, America, Asia et al to visit our country. I looked at the website of one of the embassis overseas, it was very silent about Lesotho, not promoting it at all. Secondly, there are other natural resources that can be exploited for our benefits e.g. thatching grass (instead of overhaversting it we can set up projects to re-seed it in places where it grows best), what about the abundant stone, can't a bit project come out of that for us to be able to export that. I am sure the meeting of the 18th will bear more fruits, it is a pity some of us are going to miss that.
Ache a great pity indeed Boemo that you are going to miss the meeting of the 18th. Nkokoto ke bona eka u tla ka taba tsa bohlokoa i.e. data processing centres...to make these projects viable we also need to re-orient our national training strategy and place less emphasis on academic training and more on technical/technological subjects.
I think we need to target school leavers who have no chance of being admitted to tertiary institutions due to lack of resources or poor performance and set up skills training centres in every district...the Ministry of Labour and Employment has a centre called Ntlafatso Skills Training Centre (i once went to this ministry to gather data on the centre...alas no one there knew anything about the centre! surprise surprise)
Another crucial area is Tourism...we need a diversity of skills in this sector. You might be surprised that some of these policies exist on paper but the problem is implementation...like i said the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning authored a Strategic Economic Options Study sometime ago and trust me it has everything...why is it not being implemented? well akere joale benghali are too busy enriching themselves at our expense nako ea ho implementa ba tla enka kae?
Boemo 'na i've lways believed hore the natural resources belong to the people and any govt. must do everything in its power to ensure that it stays that way...now i think we need to be creative when it comes to exploiting these resources particularly when it comes to capital...how to we raise capital? that gents is the million dollar or is it maloti) question...i think (one may say i'm being simplistic but i don't particularly care) that we can ask the local banks to loan us some of the money right? we can also as Basotho set up a Fund (we can even accept contributions as low as M1.00 and for those who can afford it a bit more e.g. businessmen can afford more) also we can ask people like Chavez to fund us...once we have raised the necessary capital...well the sky is the limit ain't it?
Fela oele ke kopa re seke ra fana ka li-diamond tsa rona hle... e le ha re ts'epile eng?
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