Suchergebnisse

The African countries, most of them having only recently acceded to independence, are now confronted with the task of achieving economic development in the face of immense problems arising from an acute shortage of trained and skilled personnel, lack of managerial skills and entrepreneurship, scarce capital resources, and grossly inadequate infrastructure. The old highroad to economic development through exports of primary products can no longer serve in the contemporary world as it now confronts the African countries. In the face of the new circumstances, planned development and industrialisation are imperative. But national boundaries are unsuitable to provide balanced markets and supplies to permit of planning on purely national scale for industrialisation and the necessary increase in the efficiency of primary production, beside the building up of an economic infrastructure. Import substitution on a purely national scale would often lead to uneconomically small or under-utilised industries—in either case a drain on scarce resources rather than a basis for further progress. African markets for some time to come. Though given countries may succeed without joint efforts and regional co-operation, most African countries would find it impossible to industrialise and secure the necessary markets, acting individually. The present cash market of most African countries is not larger than that of a moderately-sized European town.1 In other words, in addition to the maximum utilisation of outside markets for traditional and new products, larger markets must be developed within Africa.