6133: Re: 6094: Manufacturing (Dorce, Knowles & Burnham) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: caineve@idt.net

“Does this mean (linkages) for example that garment manufacturers would be 
required to buy some or all of their cloth in fabric? Sounds good to me, 
assuming - well, Haiti grows cotton and makes cloth.”

Right on the money. It can’t be understood any other way. Of course Ayiti would 
have to grow cotton and make cloth. This is the course I’ve been suggesting 
over the summer, but was received as putting Ayiti further backward or making 
Ayiti a “cotton picker” country while the rest of the world is cruising the 
cyber world. 

In fact most of the Asian economic giants had to rely on the development of 
their textile industry to know the economic success that they know today. They 
gradually moved up to the more advanced technological industries as their 
textile industry grew in force. They made sure of two things: the existence of 
linkages and the “know how” to transform or make machinery. Foreign companies 
that did not agree had no place there. Of course, in return they had a very 
docile labor force alongside with other incentives to invest (mainly direct 
investments).

“Is coffee a good example of linkages?” 

Coffee along with all cash/export crops or food crops is not good example of 
linkages. They can create forward linkages through the product transformation 
industry and the service industry but with great limitation. Besides 
transforming coffee into powder what else can be done with it for local 
consumption? Not much!  Rice falls on the same category. Besides the limited 
areas in which there are forward linkages with food staples, backward linkages 
are virtually non existent. Moreover, no other industry totally detached from 
the food industry can use coffee or rice as a source where it would draw its 
resources. 

This is why a country aiming at economic development can’t rely on the food 
crops to develop its economy. What’s needed is an industry that creates the 
need to draw its resources from other sectors, and entirely different, if I may 
say. However, an agricultural product to be able to boost economic development 
must have the capacity to trigger limitless forward linkages. That’s the beauty 
of the textile and dairy industries that I’ve been putting forth as the way out 
for Ayiti. 

>From the textile industry imagine the many industries deriving from it: dye, 
thread, cloth making, needles and the tools to make those. Continue forward: 
imagine the many industries requesting textile product to conduct their daily 
activities. The tailoring and fashion industries, the list can go on as these 
textile products need to be renewed on a constant basis, as mankind continue to 
use it as the main materials for clothing, and the internal care and esthetic 
of their home. I don’t think I can exhaust the list when considering what a 
piece of cloth means for mankind.

>From the milk/dairy industry imagine the many industries, apart from milking 
the cows or goats, that can derive from the milk: market milk (the regular 
consumed milk), cream, butter, evaporated milk, dry milk, condensed milk, 
cheese, skimmilk, ice cream, the casein (for the plastic industry). The list 
can go on. Each is an entity on its own requiring different process. 

Take the textile and dairy industries and create a tree to see how many 
branches that would come out from each. Take each branch and see how many 
people it would employ to respond to the entire country’s needs in textile and 
diary products. These two can constitute the engine of economic development and 
economic growth in Ayiti. I did not even mention how they would impact the 
delivery and conservation service sectors, road and means of transportation. 

There is economic development when one sector is touched the entire country 
feels the effect. The creation of more jobs would increase one’s purchasing 
power and his/her desire for a better living. Such as a decent place to live: 
housing construction would be on the rise, the real estate business would be 
booming. Nice clothes and shoes to wear: the fashion industry. The need for 
leisure time would increase: dancing clubs, movie theaters, restaurants would 
multiply and on and on. The factories in Ayiti do not do that. That’s my only 
argument against them and not how low are the wages or poor the working 
conditions are. For that matter, I am a hard core capitalist with no heart.

On a side note, with the “golden rice”, a production of genetic engineering, 
awaiting in Switzerland the right to be on the international market, Ayiti 
should consider staying out of the rice business and focus on other things. 
The “golden rice” is a kind of rice engineered to help the third world combat 
malnutrition. It contains beta-carotene, a source of vitamin A, a necessary 
nutrient to promote children’s healthy growth. The logic is that rice is the 
main staple of these poor in the third world. Since vitamin A is lacking in 
their diet, producing a kind of rice containing the beta-carotene would help 
save many lives in the third world. It is suppose to be given free to poor 
farmers. 


Ayiti has lived, lives and will live
Mozeb







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