Foreign Investment in Banadir/Somalia

[Demure]

Many Somali business men hope for foreign investment flow into the country as soon as we have a semblance of peace, because of the supposed inflow of cash, employment, technology, management skills and quality products, but really, does it improve the lives of the Somali people in the long term?

My fellow Banaadirians do you think foreign investment/aid/loans to Somalia in general and to Banadir region in particular is advantageous or disadvantageous? why or why not?

Share your views pls.

[Cusmano]

Noone will invest in anarchy state where killing, raping, stealing is apart of the "culture". Don't waste your time, Benadir is dead and the population there are moving up north to work and get stable life.

[Somaliman50]

Demure, i would say it definitely could improve the standard of living, but the quality of life is questionable. Some people are happy with their lives as it is.

[Xamari_76]

Frist there needs to be peace in the region without peace investment is impossible especially foreign investment.

[Ayub21]

the advantageous of Foreign investment

1.They create new jobs
2.they educate people ( lets say Volvo openness a new industry in somalia they have to fast educated people)
2.more income to government cuz they will get taxes from those works ( those working people have buy taxes to their government which at the end goes back to people. mambe gevorment will use those taxas by building roads,hospitals,schools.etc

disadvantageous

if those Foreign investment take back there investment the economy of the country well fell.
those Foreign investment will some how dictate the politics of the country cuz Money=power.

[Addoow]

I have to agree with xamari,as long as there is no peace foreign investment seems futile.

[Demure]

the advantageous of Foreign investment

1.They create new jobs

That’s what they like to say, but in reality they exploit our workers in cheap labour. The types of jobs they create are menial low paying jobs, while they reserve the top positions for their own ppl.

2.they educate people ( lets say Volvo openness a new industry in somalia they have to fast educated people)

Again it will probably be a sweatshop type of environment with long and difficult working conditions.

disadvantageous

if those Foreign investment take back there investment the economy of the country well fell.

Specially if they have a monopoly in a specific industry, which is typically the case.

those Foreign investment will some how dictate the politics of the country cuz Money=power.

Exactly!

My point was why should we want any foreign investment ever? Why can’t we encourage our own business folks to do the investing in their own country? There are heaps of successful Somali business ppl all over the world, ppl that have plenty of capital but little investment opportunities. These should be the ppl we want to attract to come invest not some foreign multinational company. (I certainly hope to never see McDonalds or Starbucks in Somalia).

My idealistic self is totally against the idea of allowing foreign capitalists to get their greedy clutches on our assets and recourses. We need to break the cycle in that sphere, and instead of the capitalistic tendencies of "lets try to get rich fast" we should focus on becoming a region and then a nation that is absolutely dependent on itself.

[Cusmano]

The issue of foreign investment is tied to many different factors. If your a business man and you have $1 billion dollars would you invest your money into hamar and open a "Volvo Car Manufacturer" firstly you need to make sure people can even afford to buy the car or you will just be building cars and wasting expenses on wages and materials for absolute no return. Secondly you must make sure the area your investing in has stable government and good business legislation. For example you don't want to see the government taxing your company 70% of any profit you make. But at the same time the government should be held liable by unions of workers who make sure there is basic standards that must be met such as pay, conditions, etc. The unions are only effective if there is large membership in their base and that means that most of the people need to be working in your town.

That is why the governments need to make sure people can read and write before starting to look at investments, u can't have an illerate nomad who can't read or write to be functioning expensive equipments at the plant.

Thirdly you need to make sure people live beyond the age of 40. For example i dont want to hire someone at the age of 20 retires at the age of 30 and his life is over by the age of 40. So life expetancy needs to boosted up by medical facilities curing these diseases that kill people early like malaria, tb, etc. Giving each child immunization programme, and other policies to help lift the life expectancy up.

Once u have most of those areas covered trust me business man will be quickly investing, but the way hamar is now lol just keep dreaming