[kictanet] Africa IT Jobs Outsourced to China – Africa May Become Perpetually Dependent on China for Certain Skills

[Kivuva]

There are two very similar threads to this current thread, one of
theme "How we are killing our Kenyan ICT Industry, what we could do to
revive it!"

I have noticed members contradict themselves on that thread, and this
current one.

Is there any economist in the list who can give us theory of best practice?

I don't believe liberalization means we should open our bellies and
let every big economy out there eat from it.

I like giving the example of Germany. Their products although of
relatively superior quality, are usually multiple times more expensive
than imports.
Same with their services.  I wonder if the A 100 highway in Berlin was
build by Chinese, even if Chinese firms quoted a fraction of the cost.

Ali talked of the great Tumbuktu. When did we stop being innovators
and builders and start being mass consumers? Is neocolonialism
ensuring that we never move forward on our own? That we cannot do
anything on our own? That Kenyans shall forever remain spanner boys in
mega construction projects!

NSSF and Times Tower were build by local companies, albeit probably at
inflated prices. But with a willing and able government, can't we have
local contractors do just as good a job?

I am dead sure that the UTILITARIAN value of having local companies do
works even at double the cost far outweighs the savings of auctioning
our Capital. If we buy machinery from the west, should we still buy
services from them?

Where did we loose our national pride?

Regards

______________________
Mwendwa Kivuva
twitter.com/lordmwesh
google ID | Skype ID: lordmwesh