Adam Smith said that the invisible hand rules the market. That may be true in a world of perfect competition but it doesn’t hold in the world we live in. Markets arise spontaneously from the institutional framework. There are three main transitions that happen when markets change or develop; Feudal to industrial, communist to post-communist, emerging to developed.
Capacity must be built through creating efficient institutions. Expertise must be brought from successful countries but ‘regulation by photocopying’ should be avoided i.e. good examples must be adapted with local requirements in mind. Competitive markets need to be built; they do not arise spontaneously. Capacity and skills must be built and sustained on an ongoing basis for a successful market to emerge. But in most developing countries this is a hard task to achieve. This panel will look at how competitiveness can be improved in developing markets while the arrival of a sustained effort at capacity building hangs in limbo.
Sherille Ismail
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