Somaliland: Open for Business

[Jacaylbaro]

Amid the war-ravaged landscape of Somalia, the self-declared independent state of Somaliland has carved out a reputation for relative calm.

 

Last week's London conference on Somalia made a nod to Somaliland, formerly a British protectorate, and the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. Without naming them, the final communique "welcomed the success in some areas of Somalia in establishing local areas of stability, and agreed to increase support to build legitimate and peaceful authorities, and improve services to people living in these areas".

 

Neither region was named because of Somalia's political sensitivities. Somaliland has not been recognised internationally since it broke away in 1991 after the fall of Siad Barre, the Somali dictator, and Somalis strongly reject the idea of Somaliland's independence. It was a diplomatic breakthrough in itself to have Ahmed Mahamound Silanyo, the Somaliland president, present at last week's meeting.

 

 

FULL STORY

[Jacaylbaro]

[Jacaylbaro]

Somaliland will need the money. Its 2012-16 national development plan (pdf) published in December set out a capital investment proposal of $1.19bn. The government is expected to provide $74m, the private sector $132m, the diaspora $4m, but the overwhelming amount is expected to come from aid donors – $979m, 82% of the total investment plan.

Somaliland's minister of planning, Dr Saad Shire, provided an overview of Somaliland's economic objectives before an enthusiastic crowd of supporters in the UK parliament on Wednesday at a session chaired by Alun Michael from the all-party parliamentary group for Somaliland. The message was that Somaliland was open for business.

 

...........

[NGONGE]

^^ Open for Business indeed.

[Jacaylbaro]

Haaheey ,,,

[Blessed]

Great stuff! I personally think this is way more important than recognition, jobs and some much needed competition. Waan soo socdaa with my ice cream fan.

[LANDER]

*Blessed;797449 wrote:

Great stuff! I personally think this is way more important than recognition, jobs and some much needed competition. Waan soo socdaa with my ice cream fan.

Well Said and I totally agree! move over with your ice cream, I plan on monopolizing the street food vending with my world famous 'Bagiya'

[Abu-Salman]

lol so we'll buy baagiye from Lander on Gabiley streets?

 

I remember back in around Christmas 2001 in a small French town buying an irresistible "crepe with nutella".

Street vendors in the West make good profits.

Who knows if the economy take off these may be lucrative though not a healthy diet...

 

 

 

 

PS: Saad Shire 4 years plan leave almost nothing to vital health services though!

[The Sage]

"Foreign direct investors will pay no tax for three years. After that they will have to pay only 10% on profits, which can be freely repatriated. There will be full compensation for any expropriations, which would be done only in the "public interest". There will also be no minimum wage. Shire listed a number of foreign investors already doing business in Somaliland, including Coca-Cola, Western Union and Nubian Gold."

I'm not a fan of neoliberalism or the Washington consensus, but it appears that this "trade barrier removal" and "investment liberalization" method appears to be giving Somaliland's economy significant amounts of investment and foreign exchange. I suppose time will tell if this experiment in neoliberalism was the right way forward. I for one am optimistic though.

[Freedom]

Indeed

[LANDER]

Abu-Salman;797457 wrote:

lol so we'll buy baagiye from Lander on Gabiley streets?

 

I remember back in around Christmas 2001 in a small French town buying an irresistible "crepe with nutella".

Street vendors in the West make good profits.

Who knows if the economy take off these may be lucrative though not a healthy diet...

 

 

 

 

PS: Saad Shire 4 years plan leave almost nothing to vital health services though!

Gabiley is too small a market we're aiming to have H-town on lock first. Plus I heard Gabiley's mayor, she's a little too hands on in everything that goes down over there and I like to keep control of my financial affairs

 

Sage,

 

Liberal and neo-Liberal economic theories are for western academics to hagle over, we're talking about real every day people ish son! Bagiye business for me Ice cream biz for Blessed if you holla at us we may just allow you to buy into our little venture.

 

Real talk though, Somaliland has a fairly free movement of capital, labor and investments. There is virtually no government interference at the moment, that creates an ideal investment environment for those willing to come there and put there money to work. You don't wanna tamper with that right now. Plus we haven't reached the level of worrying about foreign capital influence in the economy and protecting domestic industries. The country has to attract a significant amout of FDI before we start to worry about which direction or model would be most beneficial to our people as a whole.

[Blessed]

LOL. Lander, bring it on Mr.Bagiye. :D

[burahadeer]

big mac & french fries for me,obesity lacking there.

[Abu-Salman]

Being an unrecognised state or having low capacity may bring some limitations;

nevertheless, the bottom line and foremost priority in terms of economic planning should be on how to provide vital services to our most vulnerable and ease their condition through redistribution and favoring labor intensive processes or businesses.

 

Also, big agricultural businesses for instances are environmentally destructive and even less efficient economically, being less labor intensive too just like giant stores etc.

 

Even investments induced jobs will favor foreigners or the elite, better trained, connected, or healthier as in Djibouti where even that small benefit was lost for the masses.

 

Growth for the sake of growth engenders thus a situation typic of Djibouti for exemple: impressive on paper but worsening, already dire conditions for the masses through inflation, environmental degradation etc, exactely as if attracting foreign investments was an end in itself (and PPP GNP or GDP per capita there around 10 years ago before such influx is broadly similar to that of Somaliland).

 

Of course, investments in basic infrastructure or manufacture may assist the poor or minorities;

still, small-scale farming, traders or businesses need to be ring-fenced and promoted as they are the only way out of poverty for the marginalised, with redistribution at the heart of goverrnmental policies, eg food subsidies, just like public healthcare or training on which the most vulnerable rely the most.

Hence the concomitant case for serious taxation of lucrative businesses, non-essential items, relatively whealthy or "middle-class" locals.