Israel style intellectual capital in Ghana?
This is a question asked by Ghanaweb article . A quote is below:
“Israel is about half the size of Togo; with total land mass of 21,000 sq km. Much of it is rugged and arid. It has a population of six and half million. It has no petroleum resource. Nonetheless, it exports chemicals, manufactured goods, fruits and vegetables. In fact, Israeli’s tomatoes are of high demand in the United States of America. Ghana is of the size of 238,537sq km. Much of the vegetation is tropical rain forest with the population of 21 million. Ghana neither exports fruits nor vegetables except the cultivation of cocoa which was handed down to this generation by a gentleman called Tetteh Quarshie, of blessed memory.
By every account, Israel shouldn’t be able to feed itself let alone to be able to export food items to other countries. The fact is that, Israel has little or no water for cultivation, the land is 60% desert with rocky topography. One would like to ask how the Israelites did it.
The difference is qualitative human resource. Israel decided to focus on developing its “intellectual resources vigorously by educating its citizens and attracting its human capital from anywhere it could be gotten”.
Indeed the author is correct, intellectual capital is a key to 21st century success for every economy, from Ghana to Israel. Please take a look at recently published intellectual capital report of the State of Israel. Every country should measure its intellectual capital and produce such a report.
You can also take a look at the knowledge capital of Taiwan.
Or at the Intellectual report of the Austrian National Bank
Countries that understand how important is intellectual capital for their prosperity will make a big leap into the 21st century. Others will perish. Poland still has a choice.