Date Posted: 11/20/2012 12:51:04 AM
Posted By: jwangari Membership Level: Bronze Total Points: 36
Kenya is one of the main industrialized countries in Africa. This can be attributed to its peacefulness and having leaders who strategize well when it comes to this aspect. However, there is still a lot of growth potential for this country. The Vision 2030 was formulated to accelerate the rate of industrialization. It was set up by the Ministry of Planning and other stakeholders in the development of the country. It aims to remove Kenya from a 3rd world state to a developed nation. Its objectives have been divided into 5 main pillars each of which will help Kenya improve in all aspects.The economic pillar of Kenya''s vision 2003 is perhaps the most critical one. It aims to help Kenya achieve immediate objectives of 10% growth rate by 2012, create jobs, generate foreign exchange and attract investment. It aims to transform itself into an industrialized middle income country by 2030 and the strategic plan outlines the direction for 5 years and core objectives for meeting industrialization goal of Kenya vision 2030.Political conflicts are one of the main challenges that planners face in pursuit of the industrialization objective. In Kenya, there is a miss-match between development planning concept as conceived by the planners and political realities. Planners may plan a strategy that will help achieve industrialization as outlined in vision 2030, but since the political wing of the country is the one to implement it, it is not implemented. This may be due to the view by politicians on the strategy. They may rank it as of low priority and may not see its importance. This is especially so in high cost projects that are long term in nature. The politicians would want to consider short term industrialization projects which will use fewer funds and increase their chances of re-election.Frequently changing general price level of goods and services in the country is also a great challenge facing planners in pursuit of the industrialization objective in vision 2030 development agenda. Since most of the industrialization projects are long term in nature, planners can only estimate future prices of inputs needed which may be or may not be accurate. If the inflation rate increases more than was anticipated, it may lead to shortage of funds or the costs may be more than the benefits hence the project might end up being more costly than the benefits received from it.Culture of the public may also be a major hindrance to industrialization. In certain areas of the country, such as in Kisii, people value land, even though unproductive more than any other asset. As a result, if they are encouraged to sell their land or develop it by for instance building a business, they are hesitant to do it even though the land which they use for agriculture is not beneficial. Their conservativeness may be a hindrance to development planners in those areas, since their plans are most likely to fail.Poor coordination of government agencies and ministries is also a major challenge that faces planners. For instance, there may be mis-communication between the ministry of finance and the ministry of industrialization on the amount to be given to the latter for the purpose of a particular project. This may delay the duration of the project hence may end up increasing the cost.Inadequate information on available resources is another hindrance facing industrialization planners. If information on substantially important resources such as land is inadequate or inaccurate it may lead to delay in the implementation of the project and increase costs. For instance, if a certain piece of land has been allocated to a certain project but the land already belongs to another party without the knowledge of the planner, a conflict will arise to establish the true owner of the particular piece of land which ends up delaying g the project.In conclusion, as seen above, major weaknesses in development planning in pursuit of the industrialization objective has to do with implementation aspects of the plan which are especially caused by political constraints and institutional factors. These must all be taken into account when formulating strategies which will help meet the objectives.
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