The UN, the EU and Somalia have called on countries and businesses in the Middle East to invest in the Horn of Africa nation to help contribute to her economic recovery.
| Be sure to leave 10% for the UN workers... |
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Somalia exports 4.7 million head of livestock to Gulf states in a trade boom that has grown since 2009 when Saudi Arabia lifted a nine- year disease related ban.
| That's almost as numerous as Somali refugees... |
Officials told participants at the just concluded Somali Producers' Conference and Exhibition 2014 (SOPEC), which ended in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) commercial capital Dubai to invest in farming, fisheries and livestock sectors.
FAO's head of office in Somalia Luca Alinovi said in a statement released here Friday that the three-day international conference targeting foreign investors to boost recovery brought to light a crucial debate about the role of the Somali economy in the peace process.
"This element has been missing for quite some time in the economic foundation of the country and Somalia's policy and development debate. The country's entrepreneurial capacity is and will remain a critical inroad in the peace process and the country's future," Alinovi said in a statement received in Nairobi.
| So they're good at cows and qat. What else do they need? |
Substantive efforts from the Somali producers over the past four years with the increased support from FAO and other development partners has increased and sustained investment in Somali livestock, agriculture and fisheries sectors with a major objective of reducing the country's food insecurity but also revamp the collapsed economies as well as the export potential.
With a new political dispensation in Somalia and existing stability in Somaliland and Puntland as well as the increasing peace and infrastructure in the Ethiopian Somali region and economic growth in the other Somali regions in Kenya and Djibouti; officials say there are already credible signs of recovery and potential economic growth.
| The hotel business in Mogadishu is booming... |
Somali producers of agriculture, fishery and livestock were once Africa's best and most competitive economic drivers leading in the trade and substantive export of millions of livestock, hundreds of thousands of tons of banana, seafood and sesame export. However, the late 80s and early 90s civil strife and subsequent collapse of the central government weakened the export of livestock while the banana and seafood trade and export collapsed entirely.
Okay, so it would be good to get the Somali economy cranked up -- might help convince some Somali youts to become auto mechanics, cattle rustlers herders or fishermen instead of Shaboobs. Or refugees. Good luck, and if you really want the economy to work, kill some more Shaboobs. |
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