From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Thu May 21 2009 - 07:43:42 EDT
INTERVIEW-Eritrea welcomes world economic re-ordering
21 May 2009 09:04:38 GMT
* President cheers failure of 'speculation economy'
* Isaias confident Eritrea will cope
By Andrew Cawthorne
ASMARA, May 21 (Reuters) - President Isaias Afwerki believes the
financial crisis is a welcome restructuring of the global economic order
and vindication of Eritrea's much-vaunted principles of self-reliance
and sustainability.
"People learn things the hard way sometimes," he said.
The former Marxist guerrilla leader has ruled one of Africa's smallest
economies since its 1993 formal independence from Ethiopia. His
government avows resistance to foreign aid.
Isaias said Eritrea, like other nations, had of course felt some pain
from higher import costs -- particularly oil and food -- and lower
remittances from abroad. But in the grand scheme, "these are very small
things," he said.
"The good thing about it is that the global economic situation is in the
process of transformation," the 63-year-old told Reuters in an interview
on Wednesday.
"It is a wake-up call to many who have been preaching ideals about the
functioning of economies in their own ways and trying to substitute real
economy for finance and speculation ... what I call the speculative
economy or the economy of speculation."
Eritrea's 4 million people are feeling the pinch, especially due to
recent drought, but Isaias said there was no starvation and his country
was better off than neighbours.
"For us, it's a moral boost, because for the last 18 years, we've been
focusing on the real economy -- roads, ports, airports, electricity,
water, housing, services, health, education, food security. Not a single
penny has been wasted.
"It may not have accumulated the critical mass required for
jump-starting the economy, but we have been investing and accumulating
all along."
Few African economies were as well-prepared to weather the crisis, he
said. "There may be good examples. People talk about Ghana and other
economies, but out of 50-something, you can talk about a handful."
Talk of an imminent recovery by some world leaders was false prophesy,
he said. "They are preoccupied with micro-managing panic ... (so) you
tell people lies.
"You see every day, on TV or the Internet, that 'stock markets are
reviving, stock markets are doing this and that' when the real economy
is not improving, employment is higher, real estate is going down, the
car industry is collapsing."
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Isaias acknowledged hardships for Eritreans, but said the government was
subsidising food and oil, while some communities were simply moving from
arid areas.
"In comparison to the neighbours, I can say we are better off. I don't
want to exaggerate this. Yes, we have some areas that are badly hit," he
said, acknowledging that a "very little" food aid was coming in,
including from Japan and China.
Aid sources say child malnutrition rates are up alarmingly in Eritrea,
but the president said that was not the case.
Few hard statistics are known about Eritrea's economy, which is
agriculture-based and depends heavily on money sent from Eritreans
abroad. It is allowing more than a dozen foreign firms into its nascent
mining sector, and wants to develop untapped fisheries potential off its
Red Sea coast.
Eritrea is also seeking to create free trade zones to take advantage of
busy shipping lanes nearby. [ID:nLJ065902]
Isaias said Eritrea would move slowly to draw foreign investment,
without exaggerating the possibilities. He laughingly cited a TV advert
for tourism in Egypt which he said showed dolphins offshore where in
fact there were none.
"There is nothing there ... (though) at one point in time, I was there,
to see the sea full of jelly-fish!
"We will have to create opportunities rather than create distorted
images ... And we are on the right track."
Around Asmara, new residential construction projects demonstrate
progress underway, while the presence of some beggars and the site of
peasant farmers on the hills around underline the enormity of Eritrea's
task.
Speaking anonymously, some Eritreans grumbled at worsening poverty,
particularly in rural areas, while others said their leader's long-term
view was the right one. "He gets a lot of criticism from abroad, but
he's not emptying the budget into his pockets, like everywhere else in
Africa," one man said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LL52150.htm
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