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By Ignatius Nyongo
Last week I
suggested that solutions to problems besetting Zimbabwe must be African. I
suggested, for example, that if we had more than one sugar company as is
the case in countries like Kenya, we would have plenty sugar in the
supermarkets at lower prices. Because of the shortcomings in our
industrial set-up, some wholesalers and shop owners have become
unscrupulous.
I argued that in order to bring more goods into
shops and end the black market we must have a technical change. The
Government, through its indigenisation programme, could promote
entrepreneurs wishing to establish large-scale companies to manufacture
basic commodities. Or the Government should, through the Ministry of
Parastatals and State Enterprises, set up these facilities.
At
this juncture in our economic history, Government intervention is needed
to protect the poor.
Some may ask what is technical change?
Technical change, I may say, is a process of economic development through
a scientific process and the creation of a sound technological base.
Technical change in Zimbabwe will mean a new dimension to economic growth
through an increase of industrial activity, creating more competition in
the manufacturing sector, increasing efficiency through the use of new
technical methods. It will also require more investment in technical
knowledge and promotion of inventions in order to increase national output
and returns.
A number of countries in the developed world had to
implement technical change in order to leapfrog the painful stages of
social and economic development. One such country that benefited from this
is South Korea.
Jones and Sakong (1980) in analysing the strides
made by South Korea in the post-Syngman Rhee period say: "The government
played a major part in fostering economic growth in South Korea and, as
has been argued, no country outside the socialist bloc ever came anywhere
near this measure of control over the country�s resources. Indeed . . .
the South Korean government had control over two thirds of the resources
that could be invested in the country in the period of its rapid
acceleration of growth. This governmental power was firmly used to guide
investment in chosen directions through the differential interest rates
and credit availability . . . Even Korea export expansion was founded on
building an industrial base through severe import controls before export
promotion was promoted and even now the import of many items is restricted
or prohibited."
South Korea also achieved great benefit through
the import of technology and Enos (1982) has praised the state for its
interventionist policy. He notes: "The Korean government deliberately and
consistently imports industrial technology of the most modern type under
terms that assure that equipment will be operated by its own citizens to
the fullest extent, and that the goods which are produced will be made
available, at reasonable prices and steady rates, to domestic
manufacturers and distributors."
It takes a lot of sacrifice not
only on the part of the state but its citizens as well to bring about such
an economic miracle as has occurred in Korea and elsewhere in the Far
East. Unfortunately, our economic breakthrough has been stalled because we
failed to achieve technical independence after decolonisation. The failure
to implement technical change has resulted in the debt crisis and the
brain drain problem in Africa.
Writing in the Zimbabwe Independent
of July 12 2002, a Mr David Young of Harare said in his letter: "The
people of Africa are not short on creativity and innovation and the will
to succeed. Indeed our successful people are leaving Zimbabwe and in their
own way colonising the West. They leave because their creativity and
talents are being stifled by the system. They see opportunities in the
West that will allow them to use their talents to achieve their own
success. All we need to do in Zimbabwe (and Africa as a whole) is to
re-create the system that will allow us to succeed."
Without doubt
Mr Young also had the plight of inventors in mind for he went on to quote
Dinesh D�Souza, whom he calls, a respected American academic of Indian
origin from his book What�s So Great About America. Dinesh D�Souza writes:
"The great wealth and success of Western civilisation has been produced
through the dynamic interaction among the three Western institutions �
science, democracy and capitalism. An example of this interaction is
technology, which arises out of the marriage between science and
capitalism.
"Science provides the knowledge that leads to
invention, capitalism provides the mechanism by which the invention is
transmitted to the larger society, as well as the economic incentive for
inventors to continue to make new things."
In closer analysis, I
see that both Dinesh D�Souza and Young agree with my earlier assertions
that it was technological success that enabled the West to colonise Africa
and India. Through the same method, Africa should use technical knowledge
and talent to achieve economic independence.
In contrast to our
position, Mr Young�s letter blames the state for not "creating the system
that will allow us to succeed" but fails to attack business for not doing
what it also ought to be doing. This reminds me of what Nigerian poet Niyi
Osundare said during last year�s Zimbabwe International Book Fair, that
"some people promise to build bridges where there are no rivers".
Attacking the state for not doing what it has begun doing will not help us
but, instead, dishearten those who are striving to correct the system.
I do not deny the crosswalk that exists between politics,
economics and technology. For instance, the recent Iraqi war was not only
about politics and economics, but also about intellectual might from a
technological standpoint. I strongly believe that Zimbabwe�s economic
problems are not entirely political but are largely technological. In that
respect, I am prompted to redefine democracy from an inventor�s
perspective. Democracy to us is the possibility to generate scientific
ideas, develop our inventions and bring them onto the market without
inhibitions or constraints.
I therefore see D�Souza�s three
Western institutions � science, democracy and capitalism � as referring to
the inventors� association, state and business. At present in Zimbabwe,
the inventors� association is sitting with numerous inventions that need
to be exploited. The status of these inventions is like a wooden duck on a
string that needs to be pulled along by those with the will to do so. Now
that Government has begun creating the system that should remove obstacles
in inventions development, it is also time business should come forward
and play its role.
This is important because inventions should be
brought to the market and benefit the people and the economy.
It
is at this juncture that business should donate towards research and
development of inventions as part of corporate responsibility or invest in
endogenous technology as one other way of investing in the domestic
economy, otherwise Government should seriously consider introducing a
technology levy to mobilise capital for science and technology
development.
Very often in our newspapers and electronic media we
hear of the good things the private sector is doing to assist the
underprivileged communities in Zimbabwe. Companies like Coca-Cola, Colgate
Palmolive, Unilever (South East Africa) Limited, to name but a few, have
donated generously to arts, sports, education and health. If these
companies could also assist in the research, development and
commercialisation of inventions, they will not only have made an impetus
in the economy but also uplifted the inventors who are currently
underprivileged.
On the other hand, the IP Expo Council shall be
holding an IP Seminar on September 11 and an Inventions Exhibition on
September 12 2003. This is a very important event as it brings inventors
and designers in contact with the business sector. Prizes will be awarded
for the best inventors and designers including best woman inventor and
best woman designer by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo)
and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC).
l If you would
like to participate, please contact Mr Israel Mabhande or Mrs W. Mupaso on
telephone 775544/6, Patents and Trademarks Office, 49 Samora Machel
Avenue, Harare, Fax (4) 777372 or Mr Frederic Miller, Assistant Secretary,
IP Promotion, Zimbabwe Association of Inventors, PO Box UA53 Union Avenue,
Harare. E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
You could be one of this year�s winners.
- About the
author: Ignatius Nyongo is the president and director-general of the
Zimbabwe Association of Inventors and the Inventions Institute of Zimbabwe
(IIZ).
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