They Have Always Said that Economic Growth is Good

Op-Ed

I have several teachers of economics living in different parts of the world, although I have never met them in person. Some of my tutors died a long time ago. I would never have dared to embark on this series on economics if Georgia’s economy didn’t bother me so much, or if those geniuses hadn’t shared their ideas with me via their books and articles. I cannot quote all of them, but every single thought I draw on belongs to recognized authorities.

There are numerous aspects that shape the overall national progress, and a couple of brilliant minds suggest that Georgia could be turned into a rich country through the correct use of the right ideas, accurate utilization of investable capital, practical involvement of citizens in the economic process, undelayed implementation of hi-tech achievements in industrial and agricultural operations, and a developed network of continuous education, all of which are critical essentials of advancement, bound together by viable demand and ultimate supply. In sum, this is all about growth!

It is universally known that you have to ask for something to have any chance of getting it, and asking would not make any sense unless somebody was prepared to supply it to you. The supply potential, on its own, qualifies as our national productive ability, without which no economic growth is feasible. In Georgia, the most devastating economic problem curbing growth in the long run seems to be our population, which suffers from an acute demographic drawback: low birthrate based on a general fear of rearing children, single-child families, an insufficient number of potential mothers, the reluctance of men to create a family, the growing number of women going to work instead of nursing children, the tendency of young people to leave the country in search of a better life, an aging workforce, and practically nonexistent immigration to offset the loss. All this can be explained by the unattractiveness of the standard of living in the country, as well as the somewhat sensitive attitude of Georgians to the fact of bringing in foreigners and selling them land and property.

The gist of the problem is that the country will not have a big enough work-force, hence enough productivity, in the future unless our men and women are ready to do their utmost to multiply the nation. No country can have a bright economic future without new working generations to look ahead to. The correct demography alone is not enough to provide a final result, of course, as productivity is also vital, which depends on capital investment and healthy ideas. This is seen in abundance in Georgia. After all, ideas can be produced for free, but turning those ideas into workable economic processes is a huge problem. Implementation of any good idea depends on the availability of appropriate funding, and also on the readiness of the country’s decision makers to promote healthy economic ideas.

Putting together a qualified workforce and a new idea, we acquire the potential to create new products or to produce the same product at a lower price. If we lack good ideas, borrowing from other nations is not a problem if we do it legally. Nations adopt each other’s ideas and this is a worldwide practicable phenomenon. How about capital venture? Without timely and appropriate investment, nothing good will happen. Demography will fail to pick up, and no ideas will come to fruition no matter how perfect they are, saying nothing about indispensable infrastructural development or the overall micro-economic growth, and the expansion of the economy at the macro level.

Acquiring considerable capital investments from other countries is also a commonplace thing, only to be done based on a mutually beneficial principle. Georgia does not have to take pains to reinvent the wheel. Thanks to contemporary global communications, all is universally known and practiced. Suffice to have a look at useful examples of good economy-making and transplant them to our fertile but permanently expectant soil. No rocket science is needed to manage the economy according to tested handbooks without too much aberration from them.

By Nugzar B. Ruhadze

Image source: theexchange.africa