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-\newcount\citecount
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-
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-{\parindent 0pt
-India \par
-United Nations Conference on Trade and Development \par
-}
-
-\centerline{\it I. Addressing Challenges of Landlocked Developing Countries}
-
-Investing in developing nations is the next step for the global economy:
-these countries, while often lacking in legal and physical
-infrastructure, have large untapped labor and land reserves.
-With national intervention or international investment, countries like
-China, India, and Vietnam have been able to achieve very high growth in
-recent years, putting them on the path to effective international
-economy.
-Trade deals and globalization through foreign investment are the key to
-accelerating the growth of these countries beyond the value within their
-own borders.
-UNCTAD is a necessary facilitator of many of these deals, and India
-would love to see continued development of these mutually beneficial
-international relationships.
-UNCTAD, however, needs to create generic policy solutions that can be
-fitted to members of the international community on a reasonable basis.
-These include regulatory import/export standards, frameworks for trade
-deals that reduce barriers for businesses, and data-based internal
-investment and development strategies.
-Landlocked countries would be particularly benefited by such a programme
-because they face unique roadblocks to development: cooperation with
-specific neighbors is strictly necessary to even bring goods to market.
-India supports solutions that are focused on allowing free enterprise
-and market investment to flourish rather than pouring money into
-hypothetical industries, a strategy that has failed time and time again.
-
-India is deeply invested in the infrastructural development of its
-landlocked neighbors, Afghan\-is\-tan and Nepal.
-Historically, India has been a major supporter of these two nations.
-For example, in the early 2000s, India developed Afghanistan as a trade
-partner to help stabilize the country---by giving the country \$700
-million in aid. [\cite]
-India also constructed a road from Afghanistan to an Indian port to
-reduce trade barriers for the landlocked nation's access to global
-trade.
-India's landlocked neighbors are both developing nations with high rural
-populations, so their internal economic development will be a priority.
-
-Generally, landlocked nations need to be focused on catering to the
-market needs (manufacturing inputs or final products) of their neighbors
-and providing both their own citizens and investors the capacity to
-develop new markets and industries.
-Unfortunately, landlocked developing nations rarely have sufficient tax
-revenues to create large infrastructure projects, so public-private
-partnerships and land-backed infrastructure loans from sovereign
-neighbors will likely pave the way for road, utility, and ICT expansion.
-Some of these effects have already been observed by programs like
-China's Belt and Road Initiative. [\cite]
-Public-private partnerships may form as a transnational corporation
-funding public utilities in exchange for preferential treatment in those
-specific regions (similar to the international patent system).
-The primary challenge for these public-private partnerships is
-Internal economic development would be accelerated by incentivizing
-transnational investors to create infrastructure.
-A major challenge is maintaining the legal/regulatory infrastructure in
-countries where bribery is more effective than legal decrees.
-A sustained presence of corporate lobbies can often bootstrap a
-business-friendly environment (in terms of reductions of regulatory
-barriers and increasing openness), as long as sweet-heart deals are
-rejected by the top levels of government.
-These deals should be as plural as possible, to reduce the probability
-of corruption, and while regional stakeholders should be consulted, this
-is primarily a matter of national policy for landlocked countries.
-
-To transition from highly rural, disconnected economic patterns, like
-observed in Afghanistan, Nepal, and India, to more connected ones,
-infrastructure expansion is critical.
-With regions far from coastal ports, India has developed its
-infrastructure by creating zones where investment and entrepreneurship
-are encouraged.
-Recently, India has created the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor
-Project, a government development initiative that funds connective
-infrastructure in six different Indian states, supporting investment in
-industry along this corridor [\cite].
-It expects to see significant new capital investment and job growth for
-locals because of access to regional and global markets.
-India wants to help landlocked countries implement similar corridors
-internally and externally, to connect to their coastal neighbors'
-existing road and rail infrastructure without funding it through
-damaging tariffs on goods.
-India proposes that such developments are funded by a lending program,
-where necessary, and otherwise supported by trade deal guarantees.
-Nepal could, under such a trade deal, provide production guarantees to
-Indian businesses in exchange for access to trade corridors.
-Such a trade deal could also establish single regulatory standards to
-hasten the transport process for Nepalese businesses to seaports.
-This is of particular interest to India because India and Nepal have
-enjoyed a fruitful trade relationship, but in order to support Nepalese
-development, private Nepali businesses should be able to, by temporary
-visas for drivers or contracts with Indian driving companies, access
-global markets at standard rates, when it shares in the investment costs
-of infrastructure.
-
-This soft infrastructure of trade deals and regulatory partnerships
-should continue to be encouraged by UNCTAD, and generic policy solutions
-generated based on common ideals of free trade and mutual benefit.
-One possible reform would be the elimination of double-registration of
-goods (for import and export in India) automated away by UNCTAD-funded
-software.
-
-Beyond infrastructure, the development of diverse markets is necessary
-for the continued growth of landlocked nations.
-Developing countries tend to focus on primary commodities as their
-economic backbone, which is a useful starting point.
-Many of these primary commodities function as manufacturing inputs for
-Indian or international manufacturing.
-Because of the cheap availability of these resources in developing
-nations, national subsidies on internal use of these materials creates
-the environment necessary for higher-tech manufactured goods which can
-help stabilize developing countries' economies.
-The investment driven by government subsidies, however, can only occur
-if two conditions are met: strong protections of property rights for
-investors, and loosened regulations on investment into capital like
-factories necessary for using these natural resources at a cheaper price
-than international competitors.
-Such economic development has succeeded at developing landlocked nations
-economically, reducing the impact of price shocks, as has been seen in
-Austria's development of a high-tech export-based economy [\cite].
-But prerequisite to that development was the trade organization that is
-the European Union.
-
-India proposes that UNCTAD strictly avoid strategies like NGO-based
-assistance or small lending or investment from internal reserves.
-UNCTAD should instead focus on facilitating trade deals and
-business-friendly economic environments, by creating policy guidelines
-and tools (software or otherwise) to track development progress in these
-countries.
-There are four central tenets that any effective plan should constitute.
-First among these is trade pacts that eliminate trade barriers wherever
-possible.
-Landlocked countries already seek this kind of deal with their
-neighbors, but UNCTAD and orgs like the World Trade Organization can
-design deals that protect the interests of coastal nations while still
-allowing landlocked nations' products transit.
-These frameworks would ultimately hasten negotiations between landlocked
-and coastal nations because they should be designed with data-backed
-policy in mind.
-Second, a plan should create a legal foundation for cross-border
-infrastructure.
-In many ways, this relies on trade pacts from the first layer, but
-landlocked countries and their neighbors need to be able to enter joint
-ventures to create continuous road, rail, and ICT infrastructure.
-Third, the ease of doing business is critical for developing new
-high-tech manufacturing industry.
-Targeted subsidies on primary commodities and reduced regulatory burden
-may, for businesses, facilitate use of the infrastructure built by these
-plans.
-The fourth tenet is unbiased metrics.
-UNCTAD already focuses on this in much of its work [\cite], but
-improvement of these metrics is always possible.
-Continuously available data on corruption, growth, worker conditions,
-and external investment is often hard to examine, especially for
-developing countries with larger informal economies.
-UNCTAD should fund unbiased reporting and software tools to provide this
-data for developing nations.
-
-\iffalse
-Notes
------
-- Afghanistan and Nepal are landlocked neighbors
-- Focus
- - Allowing investors (corporations) to hold stake in these countries
- - PPP + deregulation
- - trade corridors
-- Examples
- - Delhi-Mumbai
- - Belt and Road
- - High-tech industry in Austria
-- Plan
- 1. Trade pacts with guarantees
- 2. Developing cross-border infrastructure
- 3. Regulatory standards to simplify doing business
- 4. Funding for software or an unbiased organization to provide clear
- metrics on corruption, growth, worker conditions, and investment for
- countries
-\fi
-
-\vfil\eject\resetcite
-\centerline{Works Cited}
-{\raggedright\emergencystretch\hsize
-
-[\cite] {\tt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan\%E2\%80\%93India\_relations\#Since\_2001}
-
-[\cite] {\tt https://www.theguardian.com/cities/ng-interactive/2018/jul/30/what-china-belt-road-initiative-silk-road-explainer}
-
-[\cite] {\tt https://dipp.gov.in/programmes-and-schemes/infrastructure/industrial-corridors}
-
-[\cite] {\tt http://www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/topics/lldc.html}
-
-[\cite] {\tt https://unctad.org/news/few-developing-countries-overperform-frontier-technologies-most-lag-behind}
-
-}
-
-\vfil\eject\resetcite
-\centerline{\it II. Promoting Entrepreneurship for Sustainable and
-Inclusive Development}
-
-% I so want to advocate Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's mutualism, but I'm
-% roleplaying as a goddamn neoliberal state.
-% Also Luke Smith has a thing on GDP that sort of rebukes this whole
-% essay.
-
-Entrepreneurship is critical to the creation of new markets for rural
-and urban populations.
-Pro-entrepreneurial culture, access to finance, and the regulatory
-environment are the most important barriers for developing nations to
-create a flourishing business environment.
-Historically, before the invention and pervasion of information and
-communication technologies, countries have industrialized through
-urbanization policies, but rural entrepreneurship has become a growing
-and much more necessary force in developing nations like India [\cite].
-However, with significant tribal and village living, ICT penetration is
-not needed for most initial entrepreurialism in agricultural, light
-manufacturing, or mineral and forest products.
-Inside of this rural/urban split is another divide: group
-entrepreneurship and individual entrepreneurship.
-Small groups and individuals tend to function better as entrepreneurial
-units for social development, as observed in industrialized nations.
-Therefore, empowering individuals and creating a culture of empowerment
-is central to such development practices.
-
-However, modern developing nations have an extra tool in their belt than
-early industrial countries: global financial markets, angel investors,
-and existing businesses that can bootstrap developing nations.
-In addition to internal reforms, creating valuable investment
-opportunities for local companies is necessary for capital to flow
-towards entrepreneurs who can utilize opportunities opened up by
-development plans.
-For investment to be viable for creating prosperity, property rights,
-intellectual and material, need to be strictly enforced, and bankruptcy
-destigmatized and legally bolstered, to allow entrepreneurs to take
-risks for their communities.
-Lending and investing mean little, especially in high-tech industries
-(one of the best sectors for new entrepreneurship), if intellectual
-property rights are poorly enforced, the effects of which we've seen on
-China with the sinking global opinion of Chinese copycat goods.
-The creation of such investment opportunities may include R\&D spending,
-infrastructure spending, and the development of new asset classes from
-existing government holdings, all of which India is attempting to do to
-achieve growth and development, [\cite] [\cite] [\cite] and it's
-working.
-PM Modi, with these policies, has been able to attract major investment
-in the country and notably improved the economic state of the nation, by
-allowing businesses to do business instead of the government trying to
-play that role.
-
-These pro-business divestment and protection policies are necessary
-components for creating urban and semi-urban development, but further
-investment is strictly necessary to reach rural and disenfranchised
-groups.
-By using compulsory education policy, India has been able to achieve a
-95\% attendance rate for primary schools, which means cultural change is
-able to be meaningfully achieved by simply modifying existing teaching
-patterns [\cite].
-Many other developing nations have comparable policy levers, so with
-policies designed for the 10 competencies UNCTAD outlines in EMPRETEC
-briefings, [\cite] India recommends creating primary school standards
-that teach entrepreneurial values, which can be allocated special
-instructional days by school boards.
-Ideally, entrepreneurs from local communities should be brought into
-schools to speak, which should not be a difficult feat because
-entrepreneurs tend to be community leaders.
-India also hopes to provide additional resources for youth to get
-involved with their communities through schools, temples, or local
-businesses.
-Programs that help connect young people to the economy can be
-kickstarted by non-governmental organizations that help local areas
-create and implement no- or low-cost plans for experiential learning or
-networking, two critical entrepreneurial skills.
-
-Gender inequality in entrepreneurship is, for India, a product of
-traditional rural society, and in the long term, education will be
-sufficient to create cultural change, but in the short term, India and
-many other developing nations need to provide resources directly to
-women entrepreneurs to counterbalance the cultural bias.
-Entrepreneurs are go-getters and believe in mastering their own fate, so
-conferences designed for female community leaders and offering free
-consulting on regulatory issues can
-
-Pro-entepreneurial messaging in schools can make massive impacts on the
-lives of pupils and on equitability for women and ethnic minorities.
-And while urbanization has historically been necessary for major social
-developments, rural entrepreneurialism is a primary concern for India
-given the large rural populations in most developing nations.
-Finance for rural entrepreneurs often requires alternative mechanisms to
-achieve results because angel investors rarely have the scope for small
-agricultural, services, or natural resource-dependent industries.
-Some of these enterprises require little capital, so much of their
-funding can be handled by the ``Friends, Family, Fools'' mechanism, but
-this entirely precludes small and medium sized businesses that require
-startup capital in the ``missing middle'' between USD\$50,000 and
-USD\$1M.
-Many villages where these rural developments occur don't have the
-capital backing to create a new small or medium business, as classified
-by [1], so India recommends developing nations create legal frameworks
-that legitimize inter-village crowdfunding/share-based investment so
-rural entrepreneurs have a legal foundation beyond the social
-foundations that entrepreneurs build with their own skills.
-UNCTAD would be helpful in writing policy suggestions and communicating
-with rural entrepreneurs to understand what they need.
-This may include greater access to supply chains by deregulating
-transport for material inputs, or rural entrepreneurship could be best
-developed by loosening labor laws for ventures that are often maintained
-by the general community.
-
-In order to achieve growth and connectivity in developing nations,
-UNCTAD needs to prioritize rural entrepreneurship and cultural change
-for those regions.
-There are three key actions that developing countries can take to
-facilitate investments in their economy and build up entrepreneurs as
-community leaders.
-The first is to create investment opportunities by developing new
-infrastructure in existing supply chains and to incentivize expanding
-into other markets by providing tax advantages to companies.
-This can attract foreign investment and allows new homegrown
-entrepreneurs to take advantage of the downstream push for businesses.
-The second is to bring entrepreneur education into schools, especially
-rural ones, for girls and boys, using experiential learning and projects
-centered around building up the 10 Personal Competencies during the
-school day.
-The third is to legally legitimate social finance mechanisms: several
-villages can band together and form a community bank that goes into a
-new venture which isn't large enough for angel investment.
-This would close the missing middle for rural environments, allowing
-farms, services, and miners to produce more with machinery.
-But even beyond funding, formalizing enterprises is crucial for the
-Indian economy to function on the global scene.
-That is why India recommends offering free consulting and workshops for
-business registration and handling the regulations.
-This policy pays dividends in equitability and in business creation
-because it connects people knowledgeable about the system to people
-knowledgeable about the business.
-This often works better than simply decreasing the size of regulations
-but still requiring entrepreneurs to go through the process entirely
-independently.
-This gets wrapped into conferences for women and marginalized groups
-because such agencies would be flexible and desirable for entrepreneur
-conferences.
-Such a program would help informal entrepreneurs incorporate and
-legitimize their businesses, and reduce gender or opportunity gaps
-greatly.
-UNCTAD, national governments, and local communities should work together
-to create these programmes and provide developing economies with access
-to the wonderful tool that is global markets.
-
-\iffalse
-Notes
------
-- Modi's policy
- - R\&D from gov't (privatize the gains)
- - Create new assets from gov't stores
- - Protect "intellectual property"
-- Make bankruptcy easy and destigmatized (is that a Modi thing? Haven't
- looked)
- - Serial entrepreneurs lol
-- Hyperindividualist rhetoric where possible
- - Will be worse for rural areas where crowd-funding or mutual
- finance may be needed
- - Entrepreneurs = "the wheat over the chaff"
-- Treat conservative social views as products exclusively of school
- socialization
- - World Bank 95\% attendance rates
- - Indoctrinate them kids early
-- Gender inequity
-- Rural entrepreneurship
- - Missing middle
- - Crowdfunding legal frameworks
-\fi
-
-\vfil\eject\resetcite
-\centerline{Works Cited}
-
-{\raggedright\emergencystretch\hsize
-[\cite] {\tt
-https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304112617\_Rural\_Development\_in\_India\_\discretionary{}{}{}through\_Entrepreneurship\_An\_Overview\_of\_the\_Problems\_and\_Challenges}
-
-[\cite] {\tt https://unctad.org/news/few-developing-countries-overperform-frontier-technologies-most-lag-behind}
-
-[\cite] {\tt https://yourstory.com/2021/02/privatisation-unleash-exciting-opportunities-boost-investment-india-inc}
-
-[\cite] {\tt https://www.telegraphindia.com/business/modi-seeks-investments-worth-1-5-trillion-offers-lower-tax-rates/cid/1796707}
-
-[\cite] {\tt https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2011/09/20/education-in-india}
-
-[\cite] {\tt https://empretec.unctad.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/EG\_eng.compressed.pdf}
-}
-
-\bye