Joint Venture between the Government and Business in Africa Term Paper

Joint Venture between the Government and Business in Africa - Term Paper Example The company has engaged in many social and economic activities that have benefited the country and the citizens. This includes the construction of roads, hospitals and schools. This has helped in growth of the economy and improvement of the living standards as the per capita income has grown from $80 to $6000 per year. In its early years of its operations, after the discovery of the diamonds, De Beers operated, as a monopoly by regulating diamond supply, which meant the price of diamonds, remained high. After sometime, De Beers realized that they could not control the market anymore. The company was forced to stock enormous amounts of diamonds when the demand for the diamond was extremely low. The company also discovered that they could not control the discovery of diamonds in the entire world. For instance, Canada refused to join the cartel that De Beers had formed. The change of policy was also largely influenced by the unfavorable image created by blood diamonds. Rebels in the nei ghboring countries would force civilians to extract the diamonds and sell them off in order to get money to purchase weapons. The company’s change of focus changed from scheming the supplying the diamonds to a moderate policy of marketing and selling the diamonds already in their stores. This focus helped in creating demand rather than controlling the supply. The company still maintained a significant market control through selling the diamonds to traders who were willing to conform to the laws of the land and regulations set by De Beers. This helped to create an environment to conduct business in a more ethical manner. The construction of the Kimberly process in Gaberone ensured that all the sold diamonds were mined legally. This helped in diminishing the blood diamond issue, which was used to finance wars across Africa. This also helped to restore the reputation of the company, which had been eroded by the blood diamond issue. (JOE NOCERA, Diamonds) The success story of thi s joint venture between De Beers and the government of Botswana has worked because the Botswana government believes in democracy and encourages economic growth in the country. The government also saw the partnership as a way to improve the living standards of the citizens in the country. For this type of partnership to flourish, the government must have the will to improve for the benefit of the common citizens. The company had previously attempted to work in partnership with other countries and government but, it did not work due to corruption in those countries. Since Botswana attained its independence, she has always remained democratic and free state. Here, the leaders in the government are sincere and intelligent. This is the rationale as to why the joint venture has been of help to the Botswana citizens. We can therefore hardly compare Botswana leaders with other African leaders who only enhance their selfish interests. Many African leaders accept money from foreigners in orde r for foreigners to extract the country’s resources without benefiting the people of that country. WTO trade negotiations over farm subsidies The government of United States has for many years partnered with private businesses in the country. Among the common partners are the farming industries. They enjoy many subsidies from the government each year. The World Trade Organization (WTO) was established after the World War II. Its main role was to regulate and create an economic order where all