Norway Has Advice For Libya
npr.org
npr.org
On a hunch, I have a feeling that Libya does not have suitable conditions. However which way they decide to spend the money, I predict that large amounts will not be used as 'intended'. The difficulty of keeping corruption at a low level, even for such a 'benevolent' task of rebuilding a country should be clear from how badly Iraqi reconstruction went. Why worry about rebuilding the rest of your country when you can get a cut of money from a source NOT LINKED to the well being of your country.
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Carroll_(lottery_winner...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/99680a04-92a0-11de-b63b-00144feabd...
- what are the structural differences between Libya and Norway that would make Libya succumb more easily to the temptation of oil? I suppose Libya is in a direr situation than Norway, but is that all?
- exactly, what are the cons of investing some money from the oil in infrastructure of education?
PS: It's been suggested that a balance of subsidizing government services and giving everyone an equal rebate like Alaska may be the best overall approach. However, doing so in a corrupt society often simply breeds government waste so a pure refund is probably the best long term option.
On top of that, they probably need some skills in the fields of medicine, or petrol engineering.
It's the age-old tradeoff between saving vs. immediate gratification.
And I know the article is old, but - It's interesting (it's what matters, right ?) - It wasn't "news" in 2011 when it was posted either - The title of the hacker news submission is exactly the title of this article. So I think the OP wanted to point to this.
Yeah, I deliberately took the title as the headline from the FT article. The planet money podcast and the FT article have somewhat different content, but both are well worth consuming. The FT article goes into more depth on the story.
The reason I found it worth posting was because Norway set up specific rules that most other countries don't consider when they find oil (heavy taxation on the oil industry so that the oil profits benefit the whole country, only invest the interest not the principal, don't drill all the oil at once, get a higher percentage out of the ground than elsewhere, agree not to use oil as a political tool around elections). It's important to note that strong institutions like a stable political system, and strong, independent judiciary are needed for these rules for even be considered, let alone enforced.
It's also interesting to note that at a time when so many sovereign balance sheets are weighed down by misguided bank bailouts, Norway has managed to build up a sovereign wealth fund such that for each it's citizens it has a positive $100,000 value.
Presumably the civil war might have set them back somewhat, but they're still in a position where it at least ought to be possible to start building a long term revenue stream from this.