Editorial To Vima: A ‘holistic’ but deficient growth plan

The much-touted “holistic” growth plan for the post-memorandum era, which was approved by the cabinet on Monday and was finally released by the government, is a descriptive text of ideas that sketches the broader economic environment.

It describes fiscal and funding limitations, and it describes the sectors of the economy which the ruling majority believes should be stressed.

It presents certain growth tools, such as the development law and actions to assist small and medium-sized businesses.

It leaves some room for taxation adjustment and promises long-term stability in the taxation framework.

At the same time, it refers to policies to bolster demand by increasing the minimum wage and by instituting the mandatory insurance of employees.

Those familiar with such plans would say it is an amalgam of communist-era five-year plans, a touch of regulated free market and plenty of social policy.

The tendency toward central planning is obvious, as is the ideological framework that dominates the proposed semi state-driven economic growth plan.

It is indicative that the targets are low, that it is rife with platitudes, and that real plans and real figures are absent.

There is not even a single reference to a plan for big investments. It lacks an inspired exploitation of the country’s comparative advantages, and it does not cite distinct productive forces, suggesting that their existence and contribution to the country’s economic development is not even acknowledged.

Unfortunately, this “holistic” plan does not move one or inspire a wave of mass participation and hope.

As a prominent businessman remarked, the plan is rooted in the distant past, and it does not take into account or incorporate contemporary growth models from around the world.

That is what happens with plans drafted in musty political offices by people who, due to their participation in the government, are forced to write something that they are not familiar with and never liked.

Development requires other capabilities, which unfortunately those in power do not have.