Lorem ipsum dolor set amit W The Final Word
economic objectives, GDP growth is expressed in terms of per-capital income, not national figures. It’s mentioned only fifth, stated after four objectives on employment and followed by targets to reduce inequality, broaden the ownership of assets and improve the level of national saving. Over 13 chapters, the NDP expresses dozens of objectives and lists more than 120 actions or sub-actions proposed to meet these goals.
Our policy-makers recognise that growth cannot be an end; it can only be an element in a process, part of a cycle of development. With higher employment before it and poverty reduction and rising living standards afterwards, growth contributes to improved living and working conditions, opportunities and capabilities. That, in turn, leads to better employment prospects. Driven by the cogs of strong leadership, effective government and active citizenry, the whole is held together by social cohesion, which is surely the responsibility of all.
Signs of similar awareness among public- and private-sector investors are encouraging. We increasingly recognise the value of financial inclusion, without compromising the quality of services offered. Investment in infrastructure appears to be increasing, not just to improve traffic flow around Johannesburg, but to get small farmers’ products to market more effectively.
We fail to see the potential presented by the life and energy throbbing and thriving all around us because it does not meet our GDP-type mindset.
Assessing risk differently
We could be on the cusp of real change. An increasing number of people, many of them young, both here and around the world, are asking tough questions.
More courage may be required, however. Some of the writers in this issue of Gradient express concern that our banking executives appear to be a little too contented. They stick to business opportunities that they can see between cosy home and comfortable office. Small businesses, more often than not, need an understanding lender to get them going and see them from start to strength. Doubts are expressed by our writers that South Africa’s banks are offering helping hands to an adequate extent.
Nobody suggests that running a bank is easy. The eagle eyes of global and local regulators have sharpened since 2009, along with their minimum capital demands. There is no evidence, either, that the problem lies in the models our bankers use to assess the lending or investment opportunities that cross their desks. These men and women know that returns are not to be assessed in isolation. Profit potential must be considered alongside the associated risk. But it is natural to overstate the assessed return potential of well- known projects and the corresponding risk of the unfamiliar.
How are we to overcome an understandable bias? We must make different journeys, meet new people, understand their challenges and see their potential. We have become accustomed to listening out for GDP numbers, which consider the tangible and measurable, missing the cost of irresponsible mining or the benefit of backyard rentals. Similarly, we fail to see (or poorly assess) the potential presented by the life and energy throbbing and thriving all around us because it does not meet our GDP-type mindset.
Seeing with new eyes
How are we to explore opportunities previously overlooked and evaluate them without our initial misgivings and biases? We need new eyes. Our textbooks and old models may need to be discarded. We may have to walk different paths and get to know people and their ideas in fresh ways, listening to what they are telling us, not to what we think we are hearing. We surely have to invest for the long term, building roads and installing fibre to make tomorrow’s dream possible.
Absa CEO, Maria Ramos, started the last issue of this magazine by asking readers how we want to be remembered. Let us take responsibility. If there are problems in this country, we may be contributing to them; if solutions exist, we must be part of them.
That might change the focus of our cocktail party conversation.
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