Oxford Scholar Speaks at Wheaton College

About 1 billion people on Earth are fortunate enough to live in developed, relatively affluent countries like the United States. Another 5 billion are poor, but have hope for a better life.

According to Dr. Paul Collier, it's the last billion, primarily on the African continent, that desperately need our attention.

"The poor in China have hope," Collier told about 200 Wheaton College students Wednesday in the Billy Graham Center, comparing the Chinese poor to those in countries such as Chad. "That's (the Chinese poor) not the global poverty problem."

Collier, Professor of Economics at Oxford University, also directs Oxford's Centre for the Study of African Economies, has written several books on economics in Africa, and advises both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

His lecture, "The Plundered Planet and the Poorest Countries," lasted about 90 minutes.

Collier focused on natural resources and their role in economic development, asking the audience which area had the most natural resources per square mile, Africa or the developed economies.

When most of the audience indicated it thought Africa possessed the greater "in-the-ground" resources, Collier set the record straight.

"Nearly all of you are wrong," he said, explaining that a typical developed country possessed $300,000 per square mile against only $40,000 for African countries.

But Collier sees hope.

"The value of the (potential) natural resources extracted over the next 10 years will be enormous," he said.

Collier stressed the importance of using Africa's natural resources to promote wealth creation on the impoverished continent, and not letting resource extraction companies get away with obtaining valuable resources for a fraction of what they are worth on the world market.

Collier said the potential resource extraction in Africa could be "significant enough to transform Africa."

He laid out a five-part plan for ensuring that proceeds from African resources are used in a manner most conducive to easing poverty.

First, as his figures for in-the-ground resources indicate, African resources need to be identified. Collier said this would happen anyway, "by hook or by crook," and made it clear that African governments needed to be part of the process.

Second, an effective tax system needs to be in place to ensure that the proceeds benefit the country's citizens. Collier cited a mineral deal in Zambia that netted that country's government only $30 million out of the $1 billion it should have generated. "Everybody needs to share those rents (profits)," he said.

Third, he warned against the exhausting the resources while only benefiting a small segment of a given country's population.

Fourth, he stressed the need to to spend the profits wisely, saying that previous African governments had concentrated on spending for consumption, which produced short-term benefits, as opposed to investments in infrastructure and education so necessary in wealth creation.

Finally, Collier spoke about the need to create a climate where investing functions properly. "Investing in investing" is how he termed the steps necessary to create public and private institutions to enhance wealth creation.

Collier sees hope for the future of the African poor, especially with the creation of the Natural Resource Charter, an online resource that can be accessed by those interested in transparency of resource development in the Third World.

He urged college students and the young to become messengers of hope, telling the audience that the younger generation had the technological skill to create a critical mass of people interested in alleviating poverty in the poorest countries on Earth.

Members of the College's J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy had questions for Collier.

Economics Professor Justin Long asked about the role of China in Africa's development.

Collier said it could make the task more difficult, "but it doesn't make tings impossible," stressing that Chinese culture valued order and could be a long-term advantage in African development.

He praised American initiative in passing the Corrupt Foreign Practices Act, a measure promoting transparency in foreign investments, which he said had already had an influence on the Chinese.

Winnie Fung, also an economics professor, asked about corruption in African governments and worried that little attention would be paid to the environment.

Collier admitted that corruption was a problem, but warned against what the called "environmental romantics," who were opposed to any development at all. "If you were really hungry," he said, "it (the natural environment) might not seem so beautiful."

After the lecture, Collier took part in a reception with students and faculty.

He noted that the Alaskan model, where Governor Sarah Palin took on the oil companies, properly taxed them and returned the money to Alaskan citizens, was a model of development.

But he also cautioned against using it as a blueprint, noting that the Alaskan scenario played out in a society already prone to making wise investment decisions.

Spanish major Emily Halverson framed the issue in terms of its global impact. "It's important to educate ourselves about critical issues in the world," she said.

For junior biology major Hillary Topazian, it was all about the details. "I liked that he had a plan of action," she said.