Our government should create law that govern local industries to restore our economic and financial independence
By Daniel Machar Dhieu, Juba
March 21, 2015 (SSB) – As I’m focusing on economic solution and way forward for South Sudan to progress well in term of economic growth, we therefore need to Access our markets in the first place. As things stand, we have to handle our sovereign rights of business or trade to our domestic markets than to international traders that always operate on their own home interest.
As now we are in a dramatically different position from emerging low-wage markets. If we don’t putdown some measures to govern our economic then the foreigners will have everything to gain, and we have everything to lose. Our policies should carefully protect our wealth and resources rather than simply provide the lowest consumer cost regardless of the impact on our industries and our workers.
In the last three (3) years of South Sudan self-government (independence) our nation has never experience self economic development in all sectors. Therefore, there is need for solution to this economic problem.
Sincerely, South Sudan is facing economic problem in term of management policy on trade development some few national have ever experienced this challenge while most people are unaware of the easily observable signs of this emerging crisis in our nation.
We are actually not producing anything little although we manufactured water only to sustain ourselves, we import much more than we export, and we are selling off our assets and taking on massive debts to sustain a standard of living we can no longer afford our economic settlement.
We are failing even to acknowledge predatory foreign trade practices undermining South Sudan local industry, instead we encourage foreign people or business to design, engineer, and produce in our own country.
The policy of Promoting open markets and economic growth to local foreign investors will not alone rebalanced South Sudan’s trade accounts and domestic industrial collapse but will develop underdevelopment and dependence of our nation.
Our local industries have been so disarmed and dismantled that we now lack the knowledge, capacity, and investment capital to facilitate self-sustaining production. We really need to work on our failure rather than leave it like that.
Our nation should design law that will govern local industries to restore our economic and financial independence and we must begin immediately to build our own industries rather than relying on foreign industries.
It is essential that our government should ensure that it is once again profitable to produce most goods and services in South Sudan factories employing South Sudanese workers. We must establish policies that prevent other countries from doing to us what they would never let us do to them.
This would include preventing the sale of strategic South Sudan domestic companies to foreign companies and eliminating offshore outsourcing except in extreme circumstances.
Our trade treaties should protect our country from predatory foreign countries and companies seeking to weaken or destroy South Sudan industry. To that end, tariffs should be erected where needed and where practical.
Experience has shown that it is futile to expect other countries to adopt our policies on, for instance, fair and free competition.
What we can do is control the impact of their policies on our economy. But in the long run, these negatives would be much more than offset by positive effects as South Sudanese entrepreneurs and industrial executives enjoyed a massive incentive to renew our industrial base.
In addition to establishing protection for our industry and country, we should properly align our companies with the national interest by changing the incentive system within which they operate. The tax structure should be changed to encourage local business, particularly in business which has been hit worst by unfair foreign competition.
One simple but highly effective measure would be to shorten the depreciation schedules on capital investment and research spending. Meanwhile capital gains taxes should be increased to discourage short-term thinking and reduce the incentive for entrepreneurs to cash out.
The writer is the Student at South Sudan Christian University for Science and Technology (SSCUST). Contact him on machardhieu@gmail.com and 0925228899
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