Working Paper 122/2013: Abertura ao exterior: uma inevitabilidade para as pequenas economias insulares e condição essencial para o desenvolvimento sustentável de S. Tomé e Príncipe
Title: Working Paper 122/2013: Abertura ao exterior: uma inevitabilidade para as pequenas economias insulares e condição essencial para o desenvolvimento sustentável de S. Tomé e Príncipe
Author(s): Santo, Armindo Espírito
Publication Date: 2013
Publisher: ISEG - CEsA
Quotation: Santo, Armindo Espírito. 2013. "Abertura ao exterior : uma inevitabilidade para as pequenas economias insulares e condição essencial para o desenvolvimento sustentável de S. Tomé e Príncipe". Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA - Documentos de Trabalho nº 122/2013.
Abstract: This text discusses, very briefly, why small island economies are pressured to open up to the outside and what are the conditions under which they must guide their process of sustainable development. In particular, the text discusses what should be the external orientation of the economy of São Tomé and Príncipe for its internationalization in the current context of the world economy. Given the structural characteristics of the economy of S. Tomé and Príncipe, namely the persistence of a declining productive sector, very fragile economic, political and social institutions, and an endowment of human resources with important limitations, the opening to the outside must be considered as crucial for promoting their development. Furthermore, this country depends exclusively on external flows for its survival. Thus, such openness is essential insofar as it constitutes an incentive for foreign direct investment, which is fundamental for the financing of wealth-producing activities with a view to the sustainable reduction of unemployment and poverty. Greater opening to the outside will tend to progressively increase foreign direct investment and foreign aid, which constitute an important factor, if not the only one at the moment, for the insertion of São Tomé and Príncipe in the current globalized world economy. In order for such openness to contribute to its development, it is proposed that it should be conducted on the basis of economic strategies congruent with the specificity of small island economies. That is, that the selected economic activities suit the small size and isolation of the territory in order to circumvent the negative effects of diseconomies of scale. But also political stability, good governance and valorization of human resources are essential.
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/6062
Category: Working paper
Abstract:
Abertura ao exterior : uma inevitabilidade para as pequenas economias insulares e condição essencial para o desenvolvimento sustentável de S. Tomé e Príncipe discusses, very briefly, why small island economies are pressured to open up to the outside and what are the conditions under which they must guide their process of sustainable development. In particular, the text discusses what should be the external orientation of the economy of São Tomé and Príncipe for its internationalization in the current context of the world economy. Given the structural characteristics of the economy of S. Tomé and Príncipe, namely the persistence of a declining productive sector, very fragile economic, political and social institutions, and an endowment of human resources with important limitations, the opening to the outside must be considered as crucial for promoting their development. Furthermore, this country depends exclusively on external flows for its survival. Thus, such openness is essential insofar as it constitutes an incentive for foreign direct investment, which is fundamental for the financing of wealth-producing activities with a view to the sustainable reduction of unemployment and poverty. Greater opening to the outside will tend to progressively increase foreign direct investment and foreign aid, which constitute an important factor, if not the only one at the moment, for the insertion of São Tomé and Príncipe in the current globalized world economy. In order for such openness to contribute to its development, it is proposed that it should be conducted on the basis of economic strategies congruent with the specificity of small island economies. That is, that the selected economic activities suit the small size and isolation of the territory in order to circumvent the negative effects of diseconomies of scale. But also political stability, good governance and valorization of human resources are essential.
Quotation:
Santo, Armindo Espírito. 2013. “Abertura ao exterior : uma inevitabilidade para as pequenas economias insulares e condição essencial para o desenvolvimento sustentável de S. Tomé e Príncipe”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão. CEsA – Documentos de Trabalho nº 122/2013.
