Top guns on Cyril’s council
RAFT OF ACADEMICS: OVERSEE COHERENT ECONOMIC POLICY IMPLEMENTATION
Former professor at the University of Dar es Salaam and governor of the Bank of Tanzania from 2008 to 2018, Ndulu is credited with reviving Tanzania’s economy with reforms aimed at inclusive growth. According to a Reuters interview, he advocated lower current account deficits and fiscal and debt discipline. His reforms were to licence more commercial banks in Tanzania and allow mobile financial services and the establishment of credit bureaus. A lecturer in international business at the University of the Witwatersrand, Qobo has published various papers on international business, as well as research on the mining and resources sectors.
On the homepage of his own website is some ready advice for the president: “Government needs to keep the momentum by demonstrating more decisiveness in reforming the economy, in eliminating wastage in government, in cutting red tape and in rebuilding institutions that are damaged.” Rodrik is professor of international political economy at Harvard University and has published several articles on international trade and industrial development. A lot of his papers deal with the effects of opening economies for global trade. One is titled “What constitutes good economic policy and why some governments are more successful than others”. A professor at the University College London, Mazzucato has won several awards, including a prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. Much of her work is focused on new approaches to capitalism, apparently following her belief that capitalism is in crisis and does not work. One of only a few economists on the panel who hails from the business world, Matikinca-Ngwenya worked at the Bureau for Economic Research before joining Rand Merchant Bank. She was appointed chief economist at FNB at the age of 29. Her analysis of the 2019 budget speech concluded that “at some point the government is going to have to rein in the public wage bill and make these departments more productive”. She is also outspoken on the need to build investor confidence in SA, saying the biggest risk is the outflow of
Despite the reams of data produced by Statistics SA, SA Reserve Bank’s impeccable economic research and the inputs from the ministers of finance and public enterprises, government is apparently not clear about what is wrong in the economy and how to fix it, and has appointed another economic advisory panel.
The new Presidential Economic Advisory Council will, according to the Presidency, “ensure greater coherence and consistency in the implementation of economic policy and ensure that government and society, in general, are better equipped to respond to changing economic circumstances”.
The new advisory council is also intended to build a capable state.
According to the formal announcement, the council will be chaired by the president, will meet every quarter and will receive support from National Treasury and existing economic research structures.
The announcement states that the new council will engage with the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac).
As an aside, Nedlac was established as “the vehicle by which government, labour, business and community organisations seek to cooperate, through problem-solving and negotiation, on economic, labour and development issues and related challenges”.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has appointed 18 members to the council and will announce another member later. Eleven of the members are academics.
Moneyweb looked at the academics’ published research to get an idea of their approach to economic matters.
It is important to note that the president stated that the members are serving voluntarily, without payment, except for a travel and food allowance.