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Move over, Asia: new economic powerhouses are in Africa

By | January 6, 2011, 8:38 PM PST

Just the other day, my SmartPlanet colleague Christina Hernandez reported on her discussion with Samasource founder and CEO Leila Janah, who discussed how information technology is bringing new opportunities to impoverished corners of the world. She cited the example of an entrepreneur who was building a digital conversion business in Nairobi, Kenya.

This entrepreneurial spirit, combined with the immense opportunities created by information technology, along with a wealth of human resources and natural resources, may be helping to lift an entire continent out of generations of dire poverty.

The Economist, in fact, just published information, culled from the International Monetary Fund, that shows that six out of 10 of the world’s fastest-growing economies in 2001-2010 were in Africa, and seven out of 10 will be in Africa in the in 2011-2015 timeframe.

As categorized by The Economist,The fastest growing economies over the next four years will be

  1. China (9.5%)
  2. India (8.2%)
  3. Ethiopia (8.1%)
  4. Mozambique (7.7%)
  5. Tanzania (7.2%)
  6. Vietnam (7.2%)
  7. Congo (7%)
  8. Ghana (7%)
  9. Zambia (6.9%)
  10. Nigeria (6.8%)

Source: The Economist

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Joe McKendrick

About Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick

Contributing Editor, Business

Joe McKendrick is an independent analyst who tracks the impact of information technology on management and markets. He is the author of the SOA Manifesto and has written for Forbes, ZDNet and Database Trends & Applications. He holds a degree from Temple University. He is based in Pennsylvania.

Follow him on Twitter.

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick

Joe McKendrick is an independent consultant and editor. Joe has performed project work for the following companies in the IT marketspace: IBM, Systinet/HP, Teradata. He has performed project work for the following organizations in partnership with Unisphere Research (Unisphere Media): IBM, Oracle Corp., International Oracle Users Group, Oracle Applications Users Group, Professional Association for SQL Server, International DB2 Users Group, International Sybase Users Group.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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RE: Move over, Asia: new economic powerhouses are in Africa
If I make a penny a year and the next year make two cents, I've had a 100% growth or I could say I'm at 200% of the previous year's income. While the numbers are positive, taken on their own they don't mean a lot. The majority of the countries listed are not exactly stable and one thing business doesn't like is uncertainty. I'm in the camp that China and India, while not the last boom economies, are the zenith of them. Africa will eventually start to see real growth and stability but as a continent it's too fractured to even somewhat replicate what has taken place in Asia.
Posted by PDFITZG1974@...
7th Jan 2011
+1 Vote
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RE: Move over, Asia: new economic powerhouses are in Africa
PDFITZ..., I'd be a little harsher: the story, especially the headline, shows the mathematical unsophistication of many (most?) financial observers. To wit: DON"T EVER USE PERCENTAGES! They are misleading almost 100% ( happy ) of the time. The "New Economic Powerhouses are most decidely NOT in Africa!
Posted by mgwilson38@...
7th Jan 2011
+1 Vote
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RE: Move over, Asia: new economic powerhouses are in Africa
I'm glad Africa is improving.
That said, using "percentage growth" actually is a form of lying.

If you start low, it doesn't take much to double the economy....
Posted by tioedong@...
9th Jan 2011
+1 Vote
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RE: Move over, Asia: new economic powerhouses are in Africa
India and China were at the bottom of all economic measures just 2-3 decades ago. Don't underestimate what motivated, entrepreneurial-minded people can accomplish, even under heavy-handed or unstable governments.
Posted by Joe McKendrick
10th Jan 2011
+1 Vote
+ -
RE: Move over, Asia: new economic powerhouses are in Africa
@Joe

China also would mandate people pick up their own feces and turn it over to the government so they could in turn make fertilizer and trade it with Russia. The kind of control China had over their people and economy was total and they were willing to sacrifice anything in the name of the Party. It's an anomaly that took thousands of years of building a specific culture to let happen. India was given an edge by the investment they've had from the rest of the world. They didn't play favorites and took from whoever they could, and countries/businesses truly wanted to build in India. On top of that, both countries invested heavily in education and have the largest populations on the planet. Even so, India's future role as a world powerhouse is still very questionable. Africa is an extremely different beast and if anything, is becoming more unstable despite the international community's best efforts to help there. Very tragic and as much as I'd like to have a positive outlook, I don't.
Posted by PDFITZG1974@...
10th Jan 2011
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