Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s minister of transport and communications, Mateus Magala, said in Nairobi on Friday that there should be an urgent review of the method for calculating Gross Domestic Product (GDP), so that it also includes the large natural resources, especially on the African continent.
‘The conclusion is that the way it is calculated today doesn’t seem to fit the reality because it omits the natural capital that is great. These forests, rivers, fauna, etc. It’s omitted from the calculations,’ explained the minister, speaking to Lusa after taking part in a panel discussion on natural resources and African productivity during the annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB), which ended on Friday in Nairobi.
He recalled that ‘in the traditional definition of what is called GDP [GDP, all the wealth produced in a country], products are counted after they are manufactured and then sold’, but argued that ‘there are things that should be included even before’, such as ‘land for agriculture’.
‘This is done with the understanding that we are going through a critical phase of human existence, in which we all have to embrace a cause, which is climate change, defence against the adversities that climate change can bring,’ said Magala, who is leading the Mozambican delegation at these AfDB meetings, representing the head of state, Filipe Nyusi.
‘We all have to be aligned and Africa, Mozambique, has to determine its contribution to this agenda,’ he said, pointing out, as he emphasised in the panel he took part in, the need to work together ‘to increase the resilience of the human condition’.
That’s why he argues that Mozambique’s wealth is much greater than that measured by GDP alone: ‘Absolutely. Here we call for reflection so that we can recheck, revalidate, whether the current way in which GDP is measured is really inclusive, comprehensive or even current in terms of the problems we have been going through and have to solve,’ he emphasised.
That’s why it’s necessary, he insisted, to ‘reflect’ and ‘find a way to recognise’ this weight in the country’s wealth, which would bring gains and responsibilities for states like Mozambique, which has the third largest natural gas reserves in Africa.
‘One is that the value of African economies and Mozambique in particular could be much greater than it is today,’ he explained.
On the other hand, these same resources ‘can also have harmful effects’, such as being exploited ‘without a replacement plan’.
‘We can have growth today that is spectacular, but if we don’t look far beyond today in the way we do that growth, we could be digging a very large grave to bury future generations, and that’s where the current GDP doesn’t reflect the sustainability of the planet,’ he concluded.
The African Development Bank Group is Africa’s main development finance institution and has been meeting in Nairobi since Monday to discuss ‘Africa’s Transformation, the African Development Bank Group and the Reform of the Global Financial Architecture’, with 3,000 participants expected to attend, including politicians, government officials, economists and experts from various fields from around the world.
The AfDB Group has 81 member states, including 53 African countries and 28 countries outside the continent, including Portugal and Brazil.
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