African businesses have been asked to play a more central role in promoting integration if the export competitiveness of the continent is to be enhanced. According to experts at a World Bank debate on export competitiveness, the usual trend where businesses wait for politicians to enact legislation to achieve this agenda must not be allowed to continue. The programme dubbed: “The global development debate series – Rethinking globalization after the crisis,” provided a “platform for capturing, distilling and disseminating usable knowledge on current cross-cutting topics on the frontiers of development,” organizers said. A professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alice Amsden, argues that African governments need to promote what she calls Reverse Brain Drain. “If you look at the MIT alumni from Africa, a lot of them are in finance and business and they really know that area,” she indicated adding polished up talents must collaborate with local talents to create wealth. A Member of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council and former CEO of Unilever Ghana, Ishmael Yamson, said governments will act if businesses make enough noise about their losses due to the lack of integration. “I make reference to what’s happening in East and South-East Africa. It’s something that we should learn from. And again, I can tell you that the motivation came from the private sector; it did not come from the politicians. It came from the private sector standing up and saying this is how much we are losing by not working together and this is how much we can gain from working together as a union. And look at where Ecobank is today in West Africa. If there is any one West Africa bank that is driving development of [the sub-region], it is Ecobank. Why can’t we have a regional fishing line for instance? You don’t expect government to establish a fishing line but if our stock exchanges can come together, why can’t we raise money as private sector?” Mr Yamson indicated. Bailey Klinger, Professor at the Center for International Development Harvard University, also advises African countries to develop new areas of productivity. He said a strong determinant of the future growth of a country is its ability to “change what it produces and move to more sophisticated higher value activities.” Source: Joy Business/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana