Dear Colleagues, I have been following this thread with interest. And quite a lot of what has been written conflicts considerably with my current view of how development has to work in order to achieve sustainable success.
The underlying issue is all about value and opportunity. If there is an opportunity to create value with the resources at hand, there is the possibility of value creation and sustainability and development progress. Very little in the development arena has these characteristics, and as a result no sustainability. The process ends up being essentially a value destruction process. If everything in development had to be paid for, there would be a far better allocation of scarce resources. Maybe not very much of what the NORTH offers as "development assistance" would actually be purchased. But what would get purchased would be things that really have value. If people with no money are loaned money to purchase what they need, there would be minimum use of resources and maximum value from the use of the resources. And repayment requirement ensures that only productive use of resources gets to happen. Clearly this is very different from what has been going on for the past several decades. But changing to this would improve development performance enormously. Simon Woodside's suggestion that donated computers should find their way to small businesses that should sell them and support them has merit. But don't deliver them at cost .... deliver them at the price / value that makes sense for the small business. Cost in this situation has little to do with value .... and it is value that should determine the transfer price arrangements. If the cost is out of line and higher than value, the item should have been junked long ago. Some of the issues surrounding software (bloatware) and the seeming never ending upgrade cycle that has taken over the computer world are important. My hope is that there will be a general rebellion against the Microsoft software use model and that open source solutions will take over. With growing acceptance of the Open Source solution ..... and a migration to LINUX from the multitude of MicroSoft operating systems ....... the value or utility of old (low speed) computers will increase significantly. And a quick note about duties. One of the worst distortions in SOUTH economies relates to duties. The UN system and the World Bank and bilateral donors all find ways not to pay duty. Yet it is duty that is one of the most important revenue elements in the government budget. It is an abberation that the private sector gets to pay all the duties and ODA gets exempt ..... and worse, some big FDI initiatives are also exempt from this important source of government revenue. I favor low duty rates, but I also favor a strong government revenue base that pulls from all segments of the economy. If a government chooses to exempt a product from duties, it should be based on solid economic advantage. And there should be fewer exemptions that are routinely given to the ODA community as of right. Sincerely Peter B In a message dated 6/25/2003, Simon Woodside wrote: > What about importing to small businesses instead? instead of donating > the computers, provide them at cost to small business owners who can > resell them and provide support services? On Monday, June 23, 2003, at 12:29 AM, Raju Dev Acharya wrote: > > I totally agree with Guido Sohne. In Nepal I can buy a new PIII for > > US$300. Also importing PC for distribution into the country takes a lot > > of time and effort due to the never ending red tape and can take > > months. This increases the cost of the PC if the cost incurred in the > > host country is added to the total cost of the donor. > > > > > > "Guido Sohne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> I was in a thread elsewhere that discussed this same issue and I also > >> thought that shipping used PCs makes perfect sense. The problem is the > >> actual cost of the used PCs when other overheads are taken into > >> account. ____________ Peter Burgess ATCnet in New York Tel: 212 772 6918 Fax: 707 371 7805 [EMAIL PROTECTED] for secure messages ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
