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Free-market strategy can combat poverty most successfully
MANILA. May 23: Countries that embraced "hlgh-growth. free-market, outward-oriented" economic strategies have been most successful In reducing poverty, according to the Asian Development Outlook 1992. and annual publication of the Manila based Aslan Development Bank (ADB), reports IPS.
The report debunks some long cherished development notions. For Instance. Il says land reform and subsidised social scrvlocs, supposedly potent antidotes to poverty, may be Ineffective. or even make matters worse
In the 1960s, high growth economic strategies were hit for favouring the rich and worsening social inequalities. Rather than wealth trickling down' and benefiting the poor, the poor became poorer and the rich richer
But many centrally-planned, government -directed economies failed, in the late 1980s and early !99Os free markets acquired renewed respectability and development thinking has embraced hlgh-growth strategies.
The latest ADB analysis echoes that of the World Bank’s 1991 World Development report, which says countries can best achieve sustained economic growth through a market-friendly' approach.
This means government should let the economy work freely and take on only those functions — like defence, education and other
essential services that only the slate can properly perform.
The ADB adds this economic approach beats al) others in taming poverty, which in Asia Is mainly a rural crisis. It says rural poverty in Asia' has fallen significantly in the region's developing countries over ihe past quarter century.
China. Indonesia and Korea lead the pack. In China, the number of poor people has declined by nearly 15 per cent yearly. Indonesia has averaged about eight per cent and Korea 7.5 per cent yearly.
Some economic analysts have long argued there kre trade-offs between measures lo combat poverty and push economic growth but the record shows the Iwo objectives go together. the ADB report says.
Every one per cent rise In the overall per capita rate of economic growth seems to be associated with a 1.1 per cent decrease In the poverty head count it added.
Asia has an enormous stake In global efforts lo alleviate poverty since it is home to two-Ihirds of the world's 630 million extremely poor' and three-fourths of Its 1.1 billion poor' people. About two-thirds of these are in South Asia and over half live In India alone.
Billions of dollars of aid funds have been poured Into various antf-poverty programmes Intended to directly assist the poorest of the
poor, like Integrated Rural Development Programmes', Special Credit Programmes and land reform. Large sums have also been poured Into basic education programmes.
These were largely reactions to criticisms that hlgh-growth development strategies tended to disproportionately been fit the belter-off. But the ADB now stresses a liberal economic environment has an indirect but ultimately more profound impact on poverty.
While various types of "safety net social programmes like subsidised health have been found to be very effective in alleviating situations of extreme poverty, these are quite expensive and can only be sustained if the economy attains rapid growth, the report says.
The ADB cautions some programmes long thought to be good at reducing poverty may cause more harm than good land reform programmes in India and the Philippines, for example, may have in their different ways "reduced equity and efficiency", the reports says.
Restrictions on tenancy arrangements in both countries have prodded landowners to avoid tenancy altogether, turning many erstwhile tenants into landless rural workers.
The ADB report also argues Asian governments should re-examine subsidies for social services and key agricultural inputs like fertilisers and pesticides.
Many of these social services like health and housing disproportionately benefit the "nonpoor , The services tend to be low in quality and unresponsive to the needs of the people.
Benefits from the agricultural subsidies meanwhile also tend to be cornered by the better off. "often leaving the poor squeezed out", the report said.
The ADB survey on Asian poverty reflects the rise of neo-Hberal economic thinking, worldwide as evidenced by the increased acceptance of market-oriented economic reforms by many Third World governments. Including socialist regimes.
But many Asian non-governmental organisations (NGO's) remain deeply critical of such economic approaches and say much of their world consists of ctearing up the mess left by behind by governments pursuing free mar kets.
Thal NGO's point out Thailand’s remarkable economic success in recent years actually illustrates the fundamental flaws of hlgh-growth economic strategics.
They say the boom has enriched Bangkok but Impoverished the north and northeastern regions of the country and created social and environmental crises that will plague Thailand in the coming years.