US Professor delivers lecture

Professor Buba Misawa of Washington and Jefferson College in the United States of America and a visiting professor to the University of the Gambia recently delivered lectures on the theme "The Emerging Markets and the G20; China and India," courtesy of the United States Embassy in Banjul, at the Girl Guides hall in Kanifing.

The lecture was attended by a cross section of students of the University of the Gambia, public, media practitioners, as well as the staff of the US Embassy in Banjul. The theme of Prof. Misawa's lecture focussed on the relationship between the G-20 and Africa on the heels of the G20 summit, which was last year held in his current home, Pittsburgh.

In his lecture, Prof. Misawa told the audience that the term "emerging markets," is yet another term that reaffirmed the order of hierarchy in international system.

"Unlike other categories, emerging markets are not determined by any geographical location, but rather by the economic strength and the nature of the rapid economic and political change taking place in these economies," he said.

According to him, the term is sometimes used loosely by Antoine Van Agtmael (World Bank Economist) to mean emerging economies.

"In general emerging markets are in transitional state between developing and developed nations. There are several distinctions within the emerging markets. Advanced emerging markets, Big Emerging Market, and Secondary Emerging Markets," Prof. said.

He defined "Emerging markets as countries that restructure their economies along market-oriented lines and offer a wealth of opportunities in trade, technology transfers and foreign direct investment," he quoted economist Chuan Li as saying.

He stated that "Emerging markets are developing countries that are neither part of the least developed countries, nor of the newly industrialised countries."

He further revealed that countries of emerging markets do not share a common agenda or ideology, adding that some examples of emerging markets include Agentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Malaysia, India, Morocco, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Russian, Saudi Arabia, among others.

But he was quick to note that the use of different measures and indexes present a difficulty in making a conclusive list of emerging markets.

According to him, the five biggest emerging markets are China, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Russia.

The visiting professor further stated that the political economy of emerging markets could be disruptive to global economy. He noted that these rapidly growing economies were small for a long period of time, thus posing a new and substantive challenge to weak economics, such as those in Africa, South East Asia, Middle East and South America.