* This is my article in BusinessWorld last Friday, March 01, 2019.
“The over-all speed of advance will be increased by those
who move fastest. Even if many fall behind at first, the cumulative effect of
the preparation of the path will, before long, sufficiently facilitate their
advance that they will be able to keep their place in the march.”
— Friedrich Hayek,
Chapter 5, The Constitution of Liberty (1960)
Colombo, Sri Lanka — The annual Asia Liberty Forum (ALF)
2019 conference is held this week February 28 to March 1 in this South Asian
country. To discuss and promote capitalism and free market policies may look
ironic in a country that is officially named “Democratic Socialist Republic of
Sri Lanka.” Yet this country has more pro-market policies than many supposedly
capitalist Asian economies.
The ALF is mainly sponsored by the Atlas Network in the
US, and co-sponsored by a local free market think tank or institute in the host
country. In Sri Lanka, the local host is Advocata Institute, a newly-formed and
dynamic institute. Among the co-sponsors are the Friedrich Naumann Foundation
for Freedom (FNF, Germany) and Action Institute (US).
On Day 1, February 28, one of the cool plenary
discussions was “The Future of Capitalism and Freedom in Asia.” Speakers were
Prof. Razeen Sally (National University of Singapore), Prof. Pratap Bhanu Mehta
(Vice-Chancellor at Ashoka University, India), and Fraser Howie (Author and
Independent Analyst, Singapore), Dr. Christer Ljungwall (ENC Center for Global
Affairs, Sweden) and Dr. Ganeshan Wignaraja (Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of
International Relations and Strategic Studies, Sri Lanka).
The theme was inspired by the economist Milton Friedman’s
1962 book, Capitalism and Freedom, wherein he argued that economic freedom is
both a necessary and sufficient condition for political freedom.
When I arrived on a midnight at Bandaranaike
International Airport, 30-plus kilometers from Colombo’s city proper, I was
surprised to find a huge airport, with thousands of passengers arriving and
departing in that late hour. Perhaps as busy or busier than Manila’s three
international terminals combined.
To see the challenge of more capitalism and
market-oriented policies in Asia, I checked some macroeconomic data, focused on
the six South Asian and six ASEAN economies with similar populations. I
excluded Singapore, being an outlier as it is a very developed economy, also
Thailand (69.3M), Myanmar (54.3M), Malaysia (32.4M).
Sri Lanka has a modest GDP size and its per capita income
of $4,073 in 2017 is actually higher than that of the Philippines’ $2,989. But
it does not attract much foreign direct investments (FDI) compared to socialist
Vietnam or even Cambodia (see table).
So, many Asian economies are still ideologically and
economically challenged to optimize their potentials under capitalism,
market-oriented and globally-integrated policies – what Singapore, Hong Kong,
South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan have achieved.
The fetish on anti-inequality, forced equality and
anti-private property, a soft and implicit advocacy for socialism that
Friedrich Hayek has warned, should be secondary to the goal of fighting poverty
via more free enterprise, more economic freedom.
It is good that Atlas continues the global and
continental discussions on the subject, and it is equally kind for FNF to help
the free market groups, institutes and individuals in Asia. My participation in
the ALF is made possible by the support of FNF from 2016 (Kuala Lumpur), 2017
(Mumbai), 2018 (Jakarta) to this year in Colombo. FNF also sponsored my
participation in almost all EFN annual conferences and meetings in many Asian
cities from 2004 to 2017.
A key staff member of the FNF in organizing the annual
EFN conferences before and now co-sponsoring the ALF is its Project Director,
Pett Jarupaiboon. Pett is a cool, warm, behind-the-scenes guy who ensures that
things run as smoothly as possible. Now Pett is leaving the FNF next month to
pursue another career and finish a PhD program.
Hats off, Pett and FNF. You are doing good in helping
Asia and its billions of people realize the value of economic freedom and, over
the long term, attain more wealth and prosperity.
----------------
See also:
BWorld 296, Mandatory fare discount as socialistic policy, March 01, 2019
BWorld 297, The economics of coal, March 03, 2019
BWorld 298, Trump-Kim summit, implications for ASEAN and China, March 04, 2019
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