Editor,I wish to respond to Gitura Mwaura’s article titled “Why must Africa always be reminded to style up?” The New Times, February, 15.Good article Mwaura. But I believe that beyond being flexible (what you meant by styling-up) and reactive, African countries need to adopt a well defined strategy that emphasises on value-addition in their economies. The strategy should be able to withstand short-term crisis shocks (be it external, internal like government shift, or regional politics), and African countries must stick to it no matter what.If this part takes like 60 percent, you are sure to have a tendency that will enhance the economy in the long-run; you can still keep the 40 percent to style-up. In the case of Rwanda, this might sum up to keeping the pace with reform in government, service delivery, rule of law (matured independence of the judicial system that can even stand totally independent from the executive if a big commercial row arises) and anti-corruption until these become a trade-mark for Rwanda, thus achieving a milestone in the long-term strategy of becoming a service-economy. Regarding the eurocrisis, past experience shows that (human) predicted events rarely harm that much. Africa or Rwanda would do better not to get distracted by it.Will Banker
