Business in Development Centre for Business and Development Studies

In this episode, Dr Robin Steedman of Copenhagen Business School is in conversation with Dr Dorothy Amenuke of KNUST, Ghana. They discuss Amenuke’s career as an artist and educator as well as the dynamism of the contemporary Ghanaian art market and factors that have led to its major growth in recent years.

Professor Lindsay Whitfield from CBDS discusses the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, the contentious politics it engenders, and the role of massive Chinese infrastructural investments globally with Dr. Federico Jensen, external lecturer at Copenhagen Business School. In the episode, they discuss the origins of the Belt and Road Initiative, it’s economic and political successes and failures, and the role of local governments in investment receiving countries. Dr. Jensen and Professor Whitfield examine what lies ahead for the Belt and Road Initiative in the future, including changes in the Chinese government’s strategy within the Belt and Road Initiative which may reflect broader shifts in the political economy of China.

As the world embraces industrial policies once relegated to the dustbin of history by mainstream economists and policymakers, we need a more rigorous understanding of how they work across various national policy spheres. In this episode, Prof. Keun Lee from Seoul National University discusses his Schumpeterian approach to economic development with Prof. Lindsay Whitfield, Dr. Cornel Ban and Dr. Tobias Wuttke.
Prof. Lee emphasizes the importance of building up local firm capabilities and localizing technology after initial reliance on foreign technology, through public-private partnerships and tax incentives to encourage research and development. This was how South Korea and Taiwan did it in the past and it is still relevant in times of global value chains and still relevant for the challenges that Eastern and Southern Europe face regarding foreign direct investment. Countries have to manage the transition from growth led by foreign direct investment to growth led by local firms and local proprietary assets and technologies.

In this episode, Prof Peter Lund-Thomsen from CBDS speaks to Faryal Sadiq, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Interloop Limited. Interloop is one of the world’s largest hosiery manufacturer and a producer of denim and apparel products, based in Faisalabad, Pakistan employing around 30.000 people. The company has a very active involvement in sustainability and can be considered a giant manufacturer which is part of the broader international trend where giant manufacturers from the global South develop their own broader sustainability agenda – both domestically and internationally.

In this episode, Peter and Faryal discuss Interloop’s work with the creating a new traceability tool (Looptrace). They also address some tough questions regarding whether is indeed a need for such tools, who will benefit from their use (as they involve massive and costly data gathering exercises), and what the future looks like for traceability in this industry.

Prof Lindsay Whitfield from CBDS discusses the situation of informal labor in Sri Lanka’s apparel export factories with Dr Shyamain Wickramasingha, a Visiting Fellow at CBDS and a Research Fellow at the University of Sussex Business School. Critiquing the mainstream view that working informally in apparel factories is women’s choice, Dr Wickramasingha explains why this view is too simplistic. She takes us through the origins of informal labor market, how it works and the implications for informal female workers and looks forward into how the dual formal and informal labor regimes could be changed.

In this episode, Professor Lindsay Whitfield from CBDS discusses with Professor Faizel Ismail from the University of Cape Town the opportunities and challenges with using the African Continental Free Trade Area to spur regional industrialization and regional value chains. Drawing on his personal experience as South Africa’s Chief Trade Negotiator since 1994, Professor Ismail provides insights into the history of failed attempts to create common economic markets on the continent that could catalyze industrialization and why it might be different this time around.