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Новая экономика для Ближнего Востока и Северной Африки

May 8, 2018 Rabah Arezki , Hafez Ghanem

ВАШИНГТОН, округ Колумбия – Страны Ближнего Востока и Северной Африки (MENA) обладают всеми необходимыми компонентами, чтобы прорваться в цифровое будущее. Они имеют многочисленное, хорошо образованное молодое население, которое уже широко применяет новые цифровые и мобильные технологии. Эта комбинация обладает огромным потенциалом для будущего роста и создания рабочих мест. Но произойдет ли это?

Государственные расходы, исторический двигатель развития региона, достигли своего предела. Поскольку государственный сектор больше не может поглощать расширяющиеся ряды выпускников университетов, регион MENA на сегодняшний день имеет один из самых высоких показателей безработицы среди молодежи в мире.

Цифровая экономика обещает новый путь вперед, но она все еще находится в зачаточном состоянии, а молодые люди сталкиваются с препятствиями во внедрении технологий в продуктивное использование. Хотя Интернет и портативные устройства повсеместно распространены во всем регионе, в настоящее время они используются для доступа к социальным сетям, а не для запуска новых предприятий.

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Rabah Arezki

Writing for PS since 2016
10 Commentaries

Rabah Arezki, a former chief economist of the World Bank’s Middle East and North Africa Region, is Chief Economist and Vice President of Economic Governance and Knowledge Management at the African Development Bank.

Hafez Ghanem

Writing for PS since 2018
2 Commentaries

Hafez Ghanem is Vice President of the World Bank for Africa.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 2 Comments on this article

Robert Bruce May 14, 2018

Much to recommend here, including the vital role that investment in Internet access has to play in shift to the learning society. but note :

1) Most economies need serious public investment to break through into self-sustaining growth. Blaming "bloated public sectors for crowding out private enterprise" sounds like a neo-liberal mantra. The real challenge is to ensure that public investment is well targeted, cost effective, and free from corruption. It will then contribute to, rather than crowd out growth.
2) Formal employment (both public and private) cannot provide the number of jobs or the speed of development needed. Education must prepare young people not just to be "job seekers" but to become their own #JobCreators within local communities. As well as STEM skills their education therefore needs to focus on their personal development and resourcefulness to do this.
3) Whether building opportunities in the new digital economy, or in updating critical traditional sectors such as farming, the technology to transform communities and businesses at the local level is key. Much can be learned from advanced leaders such as Germany that have invested heavily for decades both in STEM skills (apparenticeships) but also in applied R&D to keep their own SMEs at the cutting edge of Global technology. Worth reading up about the Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany. Employing 24,000 STEM experts in 69 centres throughout the country, this is a massive investment in accelerating technology transition. But 2/3rds of the cost comes from central and local government, so of course this would fall foul of your neo-liberal views on the "bloated public sector"!
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Mary May 9, 2018

This is an insightful read. Do you think the main players in helping factor # 2 would be the telecommunications companies in the developed world? They could invest their technologies and make a decision to have a market in these developing countries to not only help the youth but also drive personal profits forward? If so, what factors are stopping large telecom companies such as Bell and Rogers from already doing so?
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