TheCable

BY ALHASSAN MAMMAN MUHAMMAD

Achieving economic independence is a very important and urgent undertaking for guaranteeing independent development of the country and nation and socio-economic stability.

It means building an economy that progresses without depending on others, serves its own people, and develops in a many-sided way by relying on the resources, strength, and technology of the country in conformity to its specific situation and conditions.

The most important thing here is to maintain the principle of self-reliance, which means to build and develop an economy that can be operated by one’s own efforts by relying on one’s own resources and own technology and through one’s own creative labour and knowledge.

Self-reliance is the principle that people of each country should maintain to expedite the building of an independent national economy by relying on their own domestic resources and lay solid material and technological foundations of the country. In other words, it can be called the lifeline in the building of an independent national economy and the key to economic independence.

This notwithstanding, one must not advocate building a closed economy or rule out economic and technological exchanges and cooperation with other countries. It requires obtaining what lack or is short of through economic and technological exchanges and cooperation with other countries.

Another important thing in achieving economic independence is to train one’s own native cadres and talented people and develop one’s own science and technology.

It is quite obvious that the role of people talented in science and technology is important in economic construction. In particular, today, in the IT era, people talented in science and technology have a very important role to play in strengthening the material and technological foundation of the country and achieving socio-economic development.

Countries that aspire after economic independence, the developing countries, in particular, must do their best to further increase their interest in education and science, train their own native cadres and people talented in science and technology in a planned way, and proactively develop modern science and technology.

To strengthen and develop economic and technological cooperation and south-south cooperation among the developing countries is essential in ensuring economic independence. These countries should develop and expand economic and technological cooperation and exchanges on the principle of collective self-reliance. Their human, economic and technological potential is very big. If they effectively enlist and utilize all these resources, they can further develop and expand south-south cooperation and accelerate the building of their independent national economies and common development.

It is necessary to refer to the experiences of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the issue of economic independence.

The DPRK has aspired after economic independence since the beginning of its founding.

After the liberation of the country (August 15, 1945) from the military occupation of the Japanese imperialists (1905-1945) the country held fast to the idea of building itself by letting those with strength devote their strength, those with knowledge offer their knowledge, and those with money contribute their money, not by relying on the loan of or aid from other countries and eliminating the aftermath of the colonial economy by its own efforts.

Its economy was bitterly destroyed during the Korean war (1950-1953), but the country completely rehabilitated its economy within three years, advanced the line of building an independent economy–the line of developing heavy industry preferentially and ensuring the simultaneous development of light industry and agriculture–and realized its industrialization within 14 years by accelerating the building of the national economy.

In the last years of the 1990s, many socialist countries collapsed one after another and catastrophic natural disasters hit the DPRK for several consecutive years. Availing themselves of this opportunity, the hostile forces directed the spearhead of attack at this country.

In the face of the unprecedented economic sanctions and blockade and worldwide economic upheavals, the DPRK has maintained all the time the line of an independent national economy and achieved rapid development with the spirit of self-reliance.

Enlargement of many-sided economic structure, the building of its own firm raw materials bases, equipping all fields of the national economy based on modern technology, training of its own native technical cadres–this is the current line of building an independent national economy of the DPRK.

Alhassan Mamman Muhammad is a professor at the University of Abuja