Security Concerns

Natural Disasters whether or not caused by climate change, notwithstanding, the world is on an emotional edge and high alert, mainly against manmade intrusions from opposing lifestyles, wealth disparities, discrimination, gender imbalance, etc. general security breaches; which must now form the starting point in every strategic development plan. There are so many avenues for mass destruction on a global, regional, national, corporate and personal scale. These dangers and solutions must be publicly addressed and connected in order to sustain and improve standards of living.

Old Friends

 Childhood friends, Martin, Chris, Will and Tom, having gone separate ways, are reunited in their late sixties in a single dwelling complex, to reflect on their lives. Without spouse and children in their daily activities, they again became codependent, having been taxpaying workers, supervisors, managers, saved and invested through numerous financial instruments and pension plans, but never saw themselves as owners.

Nation Building

First World Nation status is ultimately measured by the level of financial sophistication of the nation’s population, as it pertains to national, corporate and individual – expenditure, revenue and (debt/equity) reserves. Money, similar to a bathroom scale or a kitchen thermometer, is only a measuring tool used to value tangible and intangible items and all must learn to use it. Investing in productive and administrative activities, to generate sales revenue and returns on investment, in order to repeat and grow other opportunities.

Data Driven Decisions

Drastic action is necessary, for nations to deliver improve living standards to its population, driven by Data from Births to beyond Deaths, to adequately and efficiently meet sustainable development requirements. A National Database, publicly accessible, with its backbone of registered births, which is linked to all aspects of life; Governance, Resource Preservation, Human Development, Infrastructure Management, Economic Drivers, Fiscal and Monetary Policy, to calculate the best use of resources.

Opposition Power

A political opposition is not and should not be about winning a debate; embarrassing the political party in power, measuring scandals, call for resignations, commission of inquiries or court cases, blocking or getting the proposed legislation withdrawn, but is all about strengthening and balancing the resulting nation’s laws. Remembering that, both the elected ruling and the opposition parties as members of parliament and lawmakers are jointly responsible for new laws and amendments enacted during their period of service.

Encouraging Employers

Twenty odd years ago, I spoke to and about the education system; its learning through rote, its certification via the regurgitation of facts, its lack of critical thinking and its punishment of innovation, resulting in the production of too many Employees and not enough Employers. A recent news report covered the launch of a post graduate programme, which is said to address such inadequacies, creating more employers, through links between academia and the manufacturing sector.

Foreign Direct Investment

At the beginning of the last budget presentation, a few weeks after national elections and the resulting change in the executive, Politics continued with the Minister of Finance painting a negative picture and blaming the previous executive with financial mismanagement, more so in their last three months in office; spending tax payers’ funds on electioneering, leaving massive unpaid bills and running into a negative cash flow position. It is worth mentioning that the Speaker of the House needed to bring order to the chamber several times during the budget presentation, indicating that the previous executive now in opposition were not pleased with many statement attributed to their 2010 – 2015 term in office. This trend is again expected after any national election which results in regime change but is certainly preferred and more acceptable than any Violent Insurrection.

Diversification fuels Opportunities

The vision is to reduce revenue dependency on any single industry or sector and hence, diversifying an economy is to generate an equivalent amount to balance revenue across numerous sources, as to spread and lessen the risks associated with one set of matrix.

Common mistakes are trying to replace strong currency earnings with income of weaker foreign currencies with less purchasing power. Exchanging one volatile industry for another; abandoning hydrocarbon energy, heavily dependent on international pricing, for a tourism gaming industry, which will only grow to depend on international funding. Moving from extraction into energy processing, transport into vehicle building and repairs, trade to light manufacturing, which have similar input/output factors, the value added offers minimal gains while the risk exposure remains the same.

Governance (An extract from Foreign Direct Investment)

A nation, the majority of its population, with a clear understanding of the structure and responsibility of society will benefit from lower crime rates, a fairer distribution of wealth, and many more people, for the right reasons, offering themselves for public office. An indoctrination takes place upon joining new (educational or work) institutions; outlining code of ethics and procedural guidelines to direct acceptable behavior and maintain order. The same is true to drive on the roads; regulations (laws) must be followed. Governance is even more important and necessary for nation building. Hence, the need for civics lessons throughout the voting population.

Economic Drivers (An extract from Foreign Direct Investment)

With energy and commodities international prices drastically declining and forecasted to fall even further, extractive industries especially petroleum exporting nations, must focus on other sectors and industries to generate its foreign earnings. A Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, responsible for monitoring, controlling and regulating the energy and mineral sectors, developed over the last century, cannot easily be replaced as the main earner, but the effort to do so must start NOW! Not just by investment in renewables but through a mixed of economic drivers.