Thuggery, as usual The law v the state The distance between them The high price of Nigeria's oil ReprintsCritics of the government make the all too obvious point that it has allowed the economy to remain over-dependent on primary commodities.
Crucially, alongside the failure to reform and regulate debt, trade and financial systems, is the fact that most developing countries remain as dependent today on primary commodities – cash crops, metals and minerals – as they did at the start of the 1990s.
More specifically, "increasing dependence on primary commodities and low-skill manufactures has not translated into catch-up growth with other developing countries".
Worryingly, over the past decade many African countries have increased, rather than reduced, their reliance on primary commodities, whose notoriously large price fluctuations make sustained growth difficult.
To ensure this, we must look beyond reliance on primary commodity exports and natural resources.
The economics of COMESA countries are characterized by their dependence on a few primary commodities for export.
Or more support for developing countries to diversify away from reliance on export of primary commodities?
Such models for agricultural trade generally focus on trade in primary commodities.
Once every two to three years, the Ministry also publishes a Profile on Malaysias Primary Commodities, which includes a chapter on forestry.
For a number of reasons, many African countries continue to rely on the export of primary commodities rather than value addition and diversification of the economic base.
South Africa also has the most diversified production base in the region, with a strong domestic food processing sector, while many of the other SADC countries are dependent on a limited number of primary commodity exports (namely mineral, agricultural, or petroleum-based commodities) (29).
