Prof. Sonobe (right), Charles Mensa (middle) and the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Kaoru Yoshimura
Vice President of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) of Japan, Professor Tetsushi Sonobe, has called on African nations to establish industrial clusters in their respective countries.
That, he said, was necessary to support the growth of local industries across the African continent.
Prof. Sonobe made the call while delivering a public lecture on industrial development in East Asia at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Accra on Monday, saying “industrial development policy should take advantage of industrial clusters.”
The lecture, held under the theme: ‘How Asia Developed On The Back of Industry,’ was aimed at creating the platform for Ghanaians to learn from the East Asian experience in developing their industrial subsector.
According to him, the adoption of the industrial cluster model would help develop indigenous industries.
He said the industrial cluster model was being used by many developed nations across the world, including Japan and China to produce great results.
“In China, the formation of industrial clusters became very active in the 1990s. The local governments were also active in building industrial parks in suburbs. A village could have several industrial parks,” he said.
He said industrial clusters can aid employers to easily find workers with desired skills.
He told BUSINESS GUIDE on the sidelines of the lecture that the best locations for the sitting of industrial clusters were the suburban areas.
He described industrial clusters as small geographical areas in which a number of firms produce particular products.
According to him, industrial clusters have the potential of attracting more customers and material suppliers.
He also called on African states to adopt the Kaizen principle- an approach to management, especially quality control applicable to all aspects of management and to both manufacturers and service providers.”
“Kaizen coordinates workers to make every group activity efficient,” he said.
‘Improve Management’
Prof. Sonobe urged Africans to pay critical attention to the management of their companies in order to ensure growth and sustainability.
He said while companies like Toyota, Sony, Honda in Japan, have grown from humble beginnings to become global brands due in part to sound management practices, the case of Africa was pathetically different.
“In Ghana and other African countries, management in large firms is much better than that in small firms, but it is not enough. That’s why large firms in Africa are small by Asian standard,” he said.
He claimed that “the ignorance of the value of learning management is the root cause of the poor management.”
According to him, “The prime mover of industrial development in East Asia was acquisition of new knowledge, including knowledge of marketing and management.”
Low Output
Board Chairman of IEA-Ghana, Charles Mensa bemoaned the low output of Ghana’s manufacturing subsector.
According to him, whilst in most countries, manufacturing contributed about 25 percent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Ghana manufacturing’s contribution to GDP was only eight percent.
“And if you have an economy where manufacturing is contributing less than 10 percent, then it means you are not going anywhere.”
BY Melvin Tarlue