06 June 2009

Feeny: It’s give and take

(The Age, 6 June 2009)

Dr Simon Feeny, a development economist at RMIT, in an article about the fledgling Melbourne-based venture Business for Millennium Development - an AusAID-supported group set up to encourage Australian companies looking for direct business and trade opportunities with poor communities in the Asia-Pacific, discusses the need for basic services to underpin business.

"Private-sector initiatives won't flourish without a healthy and educated workforce, without government support," he says. It's not a question of trade versus aid, but trade and aid.

"Clearly they both benefit development. Business engagement is great, it should be applauded and encouraged . . . but it's not going to be a panacea for poverty."