Letters to the editor

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Page 2

Mindset adjustment

Jian-ye Wang and Abdoulaye Bio- Tchané's "Africa's Burgeoning Ties with China" (March 2008) provides a commendable summary of the economic relationships between China and Africa. The authors make six recommendations for strengthening domestic policy areas, which, in theory, should allow Africa to derive the maximum benefit from its deepening economic engagement with China.

However, a focus on these policy areas must go handin- hand with a shift in mindset for Africa's leadership. For instance, your authors recommend "preventing the accumulation of unsustainable debt." Left unsaid is the fact that there are political and economic factors (less visible, yet more dangerous) underlying this debt accumulation.

Some politicians feel the need to take a percentage of project-related investments; others skim the top off loans.

Domestic policies on demand management and export promotion suffer from shortcomings; governments borrow money without regard to the country's repayment capacity; and megaprojects lead to white elephants. These factors-all reflecting a sense of irresponsibility on the part of certain policymakers-make the paradox of Africa's overindebtedness and underdevelopment easier to understand.

African policymakers must remember that if they are to benefit from Sino-African engagement, they must have the right attitude. Just as the continent needs tetanus shots for its young, Africa is urgently in need of a "mindset adjustment program."

Hippolyte Binazon

Organizational Management Consultant Cotonou, Benin

Macroeconomists, you call them?

In recent years, I have sensed a perceptible shift in F&D's relationship with its readers. you provide more accessible subject matter as well as additional material on the leading figures of contemporary economic thought. I have a special appreciation for the "People in Economics" section, which profiles living authors whose theoretical and empirical contributions to the development of contemporary economic thought have been significant, even profoundly innovative.

Your profiles have focused on theoretical macroeconomists and researchers, such as Amartya Sen, V. L. Smith, Robert Mundell, Martin Feldstein, Paul Krugman, John Taylor, and Robert Barro. The others have been economic policymakers.

I am especially intrigued by this distinction...