President GEJ’s visit to China “The Asian lesson” The transition from a totally planned economy started by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 has followed a gradual path. Deng characterised his approaches ‘crossing the river touching the stones’ as he progressively steered the Chinese economy to ‘openness’. His successors have successfully pursued the managed "marketisation" of the Chinese economy while maintaining broad based social stability and political cohesiveness. Europe’s relationship with Asia over two centuries and more was defined by the colonial domination and resource exploitation of countries in the region by some European states but the controls and the exploitation were abandoned in the two decades following the 1939-1945 war and were replaced by development aid to the former colonies. The momentum of EU integration of the eighties and the nineties, together with the resurgence of the economies of East Asia, brought a heightened awareness of the increased importance of Asia on the world stage. The European Commission set out proposals for a new partnership in its Asia strategy in July 1994. After series of meetings and signing of partnership agreements, there was a massive business invasion in China, Japan, South and North Korea and all over Asia by Europe but there were two sides of the coin to these intentions. First for the Europeans, it was another win-win because business will spend less and make more profit. Second sides of the coin, Asians were offering low labor cost to companies in their countries with the sole aim of equipping themselves technologically. To maximize these opportunities, Asian governments then set up technology incubation centers across the nations and invite these lowly paid citizens to display their talents and training gotten from Europeans (their employers) and in turn get full support from the government to harness such talents. With just twenty (20) years of such Business revolutions, Business and technology is no longer in the hands of Europeans but Asians today. The Socialist market economy of People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the world’s largest economy by normal GDP and by purchasing power parity after United States. It is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with growth rates averaging 10% over the past 30 years. China is also the largest exporter and second largest importer of goods in the world should be seen as sure and guaranteed partner to Nigeria a middle income, mixed economy and emerging market, with expanding financial, service, communications, and entertainment sectors. It is ranked 30th (40th in 2005, 52nd in 2000), in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) as of 2012, and 2nd largest within Africa (behind South Africa), on track to becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the world by 2020. Its re-emergent, though currently underperforming, manufacturing sector is the third largest on the continent, and produces a large proportion of goods and services for the West African region. Previously hindered by years of mismanagement, economic reforms of the past decade have put Nigeria back on track towards achieving its full economic potential. Nigerian GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) has almost trebled from $170 billion in 2000 to $451 billion in 2012, although estimates of the size of the informal sector (which is not included in official figures) put the actual numbers closer to $630 billion. Correspondingly, the GDP per capita doubled from $1400 per person in 2000 to an estimated $2,800 per person in 2012 (again, with the inclusion of the informal sector, it is estimated that GDP per capita hovers around $3,900 per person). (Population increased from 120 million in 2000 to 160 million in 2010). These figures might be revised upwards by as much as 40% when the country completes the rebasing of its economy later in 2013. If Nigeria is to continue on its growth in all sectors and learn the Asian lesson, GEJ’s visit to China will not only be key to Vision 2020 dream but road map that will someday put the country side-by-side with the USA who see us as good for nothing, slaves and shudder our sovereignty as a nation.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 22:05:04 +0000
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