Study On The Regional Economic Development Of Mali

In the era of the globalization of world economy, regional economic development is become an essential component for macroeconomic and structural policies. In the world, each country needs competitive and dynamic regions in order to achieve the millennium development goals, and to participate to world economy. This changes the statute of the regions. In addition, the process of economic development has increase inequality between different regions of a nation, and the problems of regional economic development are an important theme in economic policies of most countries. As a developing African country in Sub-Sahara area, Mali has taken very different development policy after the liberation in 1960s.However, several forces "were unleashed generating new processes of change that have reshaped many regions and their economies". In Mali these include drought, famine, poverty, unemployment, desertification, oil crisis so on. Many regions have suffered a lot from the effects of such problems.In recent years, a number of studies have analyzed regional economic development in most developing countries. Based on the theory of regional economic development, this study made a systematic comparison on regional economic development strategy, model, policy, main factors of national economic development, etc.Due to our collected information, we find that different countries adopt different approaches to develop its national and regional economy. And two countries can borrow same way of economic development inspired on same ideology like Mali and China in the sixties, and obtain different results. The theories of regional development issued from classical and neoclassical have failed to bring the solution to the regional development problem in developing countries because of the misunderstanding of the problems, and elsewhere, the economic reform since the 1980s under the Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) initiated by world bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) failed to bring appropriate solutions in Mali. And the poverty is becoming widespread. In regional and rural level in Mali, the economic situation is very precarious: population growth, mortality level, unemployment, income, poverty levels are very high compare to Bamako. For whole country, the investments, savings, consumption, the human resources development and the FDI are low and among the African and the world lowest. Or in China, the situation is different. By comparing the regional development level and trends of Mali to that of China, we find that Mali remains far behind China. Since the early reform, China has undergone a significant structural change in it national economy that permitted a change in the regional pattern of population and economic activities, reflecting the geographical distribution of human and natural resources. It is well know that China's economy is experienced remarkable growth since economic reform and the out-open policy initiated in 1978 by the government.Summering up the regional development factors in China, we find that the intervention of many factors are necessary for the development of different regions. These factors are various and varying according to the situation needs. They include the opening of economy to foreign investment, the development of physics and human infrastructures and so on. The Chinese experience is instructive here. Dynamic trade policies were implemented which contributed to the strong growth of the Chinese economies, using a complex combination of liberalization and control (sometimes excessive control) of the relations between the domestic economy and the outside world.Through this study we remark that the regional economic development policies in both countries have been influenced by the situation needs: the decolonization, nationalism, le patriotism and the security and actually the globalization. Since the launch of reforms and the out-open policies in 1978, China has experienced profound changes but the state continues to play an important role controlling the national economy. China plays an important role in the global economy. If lessons learned from China's success are applied to Mali, it becomes evident that Mali can imitate China's success in developing human capital and providing some preferential treatment. However, Mali needs to continue to take steps to improve its infrastructure and government regulation in order to increase FDI flows. Based on Key Lessons from China's Success in Manufacturing and Mali's Obstacles to Growth in Manufacturing, it is quite evident that Mali needs to increase its FDI flows and improve its infrastructure to increase growth in manufacturing. Making a serious investment infrastructure will help business grow and attract more investment to Mali as well.To develop its manufacturing sector, Mali would need to improve its infrastructure, continue its development of human capital and provide some preferential treatment to increase FDI and the foster specific industry development. Like China, Mali need to developed Special Economic Zones (SEZs) that provide high quality infrastructure facilities and support services to manufacturing firms. They "allowed for government, private, or joint sector initiatives to develop business. The SEZs provide high quality infrastructure facilities and support services". Learning from China's experience would suggest that higher level of FDI is necessary for further growth in the manufacturing sector. According to the World Bank 2008, the economy Mali is still not conducive for entrepreneurs, and the competitiveness level is very low. The economic development in Mali is based on 3 sectors: the cotton, the gold and livestock. The cotton and the growth in livestock depend strongly on the rainfall. To develop our economic and participate in global economy and be more competitive, Mali needs more competitive regions and products; to diversified it agriculture, high domestic saving, to promote foreign direct investment; to search for new sources of growth. Successful economic development requires an infrastructure that will support a normally functioning market economy. To make sure that we have a fertile environment in which growth can take place, we have to make sure that there is an adequate economic infrastructure. China's economic growth has been led by manufacturing, while Mali's growth has been through agriculture and mining. No region in China were primary sector overtakes the other sectors. And most dominant sector is the secondary in all regions.