ABOUT 1,600 years ago, the Carthaginian leader Hannibal said, “If we do not find the way to success, we must invent it.” Also, there is a proverb that I always repeat - “Where there is a will, there is a way.” There is no doubt that everyone knows what this leader - Hannibal - offered to his country, because he invented the way to its success. This is just like the will of the late Chinese President Deng Xiaoping, who witnessed the birth of popular China, lived through its crises from 1945 until his death, and was the most important engine of the industrial revolution in China. This communist leader, after he succeeded Hua Guofeng, inherited a country on the verge of bankruptcy, and suffering from several crises that originally resulted from the consequences of the great famine caused by Mao Zedong’s decisions. Therefore when he assumed power, the first thing he did was plan for the advancement of the country.
At that time, the ruling Communist Party was suffering from power distribution in a way that did not allow any economic activity outside the administration of these centers. It thus sent a correspondence to a British university to seek the help of economists. The university chose Elias Korkis, a British citizen of Iraqi origin, and granted him full powers to perform his duties. There were partisan circles opposing this proposal, but Xiaoping insisted on his position. In his famous speech in 1978, he said, “China needs half a century to rise”.
However, according to the plan drawn up by Korkis, China transformed into the largest industrial power in the world within two decades. Today, it has become the second economy in the world, and it is on the verge of becoming the first economy. This example is not a unique one, as there is another one in Singapore, the island that used to live in poverty and disease due to underdevelopment and the lack of natural resources.
However, it became blessed with a prime minister who realized from the beginning that the transition to the renaissance of his country needed ambition and determination. Therefore, Singapore’s leader Lee Kuan Yew worked to lift the country through education. He made the teacher’s salary one of the highest incomes in the country. Within two decades after its separation from Malaysia, the island started achieving a national income of USD 340 billion. It became the seventh in the world with an average per capita income of about 62 thousand and a half dollars annually, in addition to the establishment of a global free market.
These equations were supported by one man who had the ambition and determination to reach the ultimate goal, which is the progress of the state, and achieve the strength of its continuity without crises. None of them submitted to the deep state and the reformists. Sometimes one minister can achieve a miracle for his country, as did the former German Chancellor Ludwig Earhart who applied the theory of the social market economy when he was Minister of Economy and achieved an economic miracle after Germany’s exit from World War II completely destroyed it.
Indeed, there is always the ability to overcome crises when there is a will to do so. One of the states in India was suffering from poverty, disease and illiteracy, and its youth dreamed of immigration. At that time, Eng. Ram Krishna Baliga, who was the Head of the Indian Governmental Electronics Development Corporation, asked himself, “Why do we make our children migrate to foreign companies? Why don’t’ we make them migrate to us?”
He then started working on establishing an electronic city for the information technology industry to educate and qualify a million Indian students in information technology. The government trusted him, granted him full powers, and allocated a large area in southern Bangalore to implement what he called the “city complex”. He established seven advanced technology institutes, which enroll about 50,000 outstanding students, and each student was given a laptop and an internet line for free. After that, he sent 2,400 outstanding students to study in the United States of America, Britain, and Germany, and those who returned taught others. As for those who settled abroad, they continued to visit the complex every year for a month to transfer their experiences.
In order to encourage foreign companies to invest in India, he gave them land for free and exempted them from taxes if 1,000 Indians are employed in each company. Over time, 103 of the largest global technology companies moved to that state. After the Indians learned from them, they established about 1,500 software companies. By then, the Indian government decided to establish three electronic cities in different states. Now, the city of Bangalore alone produces technology programs and provides services worth about USD 33 billion. The average per capita income has increased 11 times. India’s ambition did not stop there, as it currently trains about four million students in 1,832 educational institutions specializing in modern technology to catch up with development.
Also, on the Arab and Gulf levels, there is an example. Before King Salman came to power and appointed Prince Muhammad bin Salman as crown prince, Saudi Arabia was on the brink of bankruptcy. However, he revived the state, thanks to the courageous initiatives led by Prince Muhammad bin Salman. Today Saudi Arabia is transforming in less than ten years to become an international destination economically, crowded with productive projects. The whole world is coming to it for tourism and investment purposes. There is no doubt that the countries that relied on change in the methodology of education and administration were able to achieve renaissance, but for that, their leaders must have the will and ambition. Will Kuwait achieve this? This is because we do not want to say bye-bye to our country; as we do not want to say that we are shouting in a well.
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By Ahmed Al-Jarallah Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
