Dr. Nii Moi Thompson, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, has highlighted the critical role of international trade in propelling Ghana beyond reliance on foreign aid.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Citi FM, he pointed to the experiences of countries like China, South Korea, and Japan as examples of how international trade can drive economic transformation.
If you look at China, South Korea, and Japan, what really triggered them beyond aid is international trade. For China in particular, the dramatic transformation is simply unbelievable. They started the reforms in 1978, struggled until 2000 when American businesses convinced Bill Clinton to allow China to join the World Trade Organization, and then two years later, they took off,” Dr. Thompson explained.
He emphasised that every developed country has benefited from foreign aid at some point, including China and Japan.
The evidence shows that every single country that has developed today had a certain amount of foreign aid, including China. Japan borrowed the equivalent of about 10 billion dollars after the end of the Second World War and invested them in very strategic industries like steel, highways, and power plants.
“That is what laid the basis for Japan’s industrial development. Japan gave China foreign aid for 40 continuous years, and they just ended that after China overtook Japan as the second-largest economy,” he noted.
Dr. Thompson also stressed the importance of strategic aid utilization, cautioning that aid donors often have their own motivations.
It is about how we use aid, and you need to be very strategic as an aid recipient because sometimes those who give you aid also have their own motivations. How does it align with your development priorities?
“Because it may look attractive, but it may also distort development priorities. So I have been reviewing our loan books, and the quality of our loans is so bad,” he remarked.
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