How would Eritrea exchange proper relations with her neighbours?

Within the worldwide system of socio-economic relations, the countries that neighbour Eritrea influence her directly in economy, politics and social affairs, and vice-versa. Although the geographical nature, internal resources and other factors of a country play leading roles to the access of progress, these inevitable interactions, interdependences and interrelations have great impacts on national growth and stability. Subsequently, every country in the world likes to develop relationships with others. However, if relationships are improperly handled they could cause damage.

In today’s international network, countries of the world have increasingly grown dependent on one another. The influences of geographical, economic, military and social relations are increasing across the globe more than ever. They are much more engaged in cross-border trading. More exporting of resources is in place to acquire the established hard currencies or other international valuable exchanges, which is quite unattainable for many countries. Reciprocity matters to maintain mutual interest. Therefore, most foreign policies are designed to suit international economic situations, ideologies and various strategic factors in order to gain interest from many sources.

In principle, countries advance their own national interests. They might also stand for some specific national group interest. Some bilateral or multilateral gains are also possible under cooperative international policies. For the same reason, some countries are empowering their national economies and other interest from various international opportunities; while other countries are losing their ground. Thus, it is so evident that there are inequalities in the distribution of wealth at the global scale as well as within countries.

Therefore, the ongoing realities of the above global challenges have been growing trends where many countries are forging favourable relationships with their surrounding nations so as to facilitate the exchange of resources, especially to ease the shortage of hard currencies and various other multilateral interests.

As such, Eritrea needs to develop proper and functional relationships with her surrounding countries (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia) in order to attain closer reciprocities for economic growth, peace and stability. More importantly, Eritrea needs to examine her domestic socio-economic capability and consider all mutual policies as a platform to carry out realistic economic outreach. If Eritrea does not take into consideration the importance of overall feasibility studies and commit to foreign cooperation, then this will have always negative effect on her economy and deteriorate public life. Consequently this could reflect improper influences, both in domestic and the neighbour countries.

Some common characteristics of the region, as well as the possibilities of handling conflicts that Eritrea may need to approach with her most influential neighbours have also been included within the scope of this article. The role of the Eritrean public would be needed in order to arrive at peace and opportunities. That is all about the purpose of my writing.

Eritrea’s main economic structure: what the country offers to her people:

According to my common knowledge, short summaries on Eritrean resources and government behaviour can help in understanding the benchmarks of economic and public situations. I think it is obvious to the majority of our population as to how the economic resources of Eritrea have been doing. However, I just like to describe the primary sources of living and their out-put in order to estimate the chance of economic development, as well as the level of influence that this country reflects over other nations.

First, we need to examine our own economy to know where we are going and how proper relations can be exercised. As such, it can be regarded as a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats). In rare cases, I have typed some simple opinions of my own regarding economic activities. It is obvious that Eritrea has the right to international relationships across the world, although the limit of this article focuses on the relationships with her neighbouring nations.

The source of living of the majority population in rural Eritrea is subsistence farming, nomadic life in search for pasture for cattle herding, and fishery. The domestic animal population is below average. The wild animal life has deteriorated. The soil texture is mostly poor with very scarce vegetation. Very small portion of the land is under horticultural irrigation. There is some small scale of agricultural plains too. There is an abundance of wild prickly pears (Beles) that can be helpful for supporting the economy, if well managed under agro-industrial schemes. Eritrea does not have enough rivers and lakes. The interference of drought calamites is also a barrier, not only in sustaining rural life, but also worsens the water supply and related activities within the urban areas. Generally speaking, the output of the above economic sectors is insufficient, even for domestic supply.

In the urban areas, people depend on the exhausting of various manufacturing plants, a few discouraging entrepreneurial activities as well as government services. There is rare replacement of technology. Eritrea is poor in manufacturing industries so she is really unable to export, even to her neighbouring regions. Unemployment is very high, although I can’t put a figure to it.

The country’s infrastructure is of course backward and may need further repair, or new developments. Construction is a growing trend. But the sector is suffering from the lack of materials, because there is not enough hard currency to purchase them. On top of regular paid employees, the government has long been depending on the supplement of extensive forced labour. The extending forced labour or services are being condemned by the general public because it violates human rights. The development of roads is said to be better performed than other infrastructural activities. However, it is said that most of these construction output lack durability or do not last long. There are few historical sites in the country that would be able to qualify for an average level of tourist attraction if some creativity is to be added.

Eritrea’s ports, Massawa and Assab which are located along the stretching coast of the Red Sea, were hoping to generate income from services and prepare for further development so as to support the national economy. Meanwhile, Ethiopia, the sole client, has boycotted these services due to the mishandling of the government in Eritrea. I think, the emotions of both governments have caused the loss of inalienable ties between the peoples of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The absence of attractive and virtual relations with Ethiopia have caused not only dysfunction to the port of Assab, and to some degree the port of Massawa, which is now only for local use, but also blocked other interesting commercial access so that all have severely changed the socio-economic scenario of Eritrea.

As such, the consequence of the conflict with Ethiopia appears damaging than conflicts with others abroad. Even under possible future relationships with that country, I think, the influential value of the port of Assab might be less important for some years than it used to be, because Ethiopia is now using the port of Djibouti. Eritrea will need to adjust her policy in this regard. Therefore, Eritrea may have to look at ports and roads upgrading or building of new port sites under promising agreements, presumably with Ethiopia. Such renewed infrastructural accommodations and the anticipating application of win-win policies would be able to generate various incomes, which are in urgent need to support the deteriorated national economy. In addition to that, modern fishing, upgrading the exporting of salt and some recreational developments along the coasts of the Red Sea can help the economy.

I believe that the introduction of some affordable royalty payments, especially to subsidize income loss to the vicinity of the Eritrean community would be fair. Such a system in place can give support and confidence to the surrounding population as well as to the government. Assab and Massawa are not only commercial outlets, but generally, the mass of the Red Sea has influential attraction for naval capabilities in the region.

Undeniably, inadequate natural resources in Eritrea do not help in the development of the national economy. Due to the very discouraging exports, the country is not being able to create savings of hard currencies or other items with exchange value as to use for importing commodities or services to support domestic activities. Partnering with international financial lenders in order to use opportunities of commercial assets is not easy for Eritrea. I think that this is due to the lack of reciprocal value of interest, and what they call credibility requirements applied by foreign financial institutions.

The public financial contributions and other income sources, especially those that are related to the Diaspora are helpful. But, due to the increasingly strict foreign policies of other countries on access immigration and decreasing benefits, this source of income may not be always supportive on an ongoing basis. However, despite several types of income from the public, and the financial value gained from the unpaid forced labour output, the national economy is not able to move forward due to the basic problems of resources and leadership.

Nakfa, the national currency, has failed so much in value to regulate normal transactions. As a result of the above deteriorated economic combinations, trade is substantially weakened and blind deals are exercised in terms of the exchange value of goods and services. Obviously, the Eritrean people have been suffering from exacerbating hyperinflations for more than a decade.

Implementation of a code of national finances can be so important in order to help proper financial allocations and build public confidence. I understand that the government has particular challenges regarding the shortcoming of resources. However, that can not be the only reason for not improving the economy.

In my view, a deeper microeconomic analysis to develop affordable medium size agro-industries and various micro-projects, as well as the need for policy adjustments to eliminate forced labour are very important for encouraging domestic supply where markets are so failing to match the public demands. This would contribute to closer economic ties between the rural and urban, and improve the life styles. Furthermore, Eritrea may seek cooperation from her neighbours for hydroelectric power to support the economy.

Were not many of the government domestic and foreign policies wrong, I believe that certain economic developments could have been achieved in the country. Uncertain natural resources that could be available may help us imagine for future economic progress. The question is though, when and how much would be the production cost to attract investments for profit. So far, in terms of economy, Eritrea does not have enough resources and reliable activities. So, let us consider what our land offers to her people.

Eritrean politics has been behaving rough in both domestic and foreign affairs. There is no constitution and formal opposition parties. Sadly, the violations of human rights are wide and deep. The new nation has provoked all its neighbours. Thus, diplomatic relations with the countries in the region has been on and off. The government is known for surging into conflicts without regard for national interest. It has all been about the suffering of our people, wasting of time and resources. The regime is blamed for improper relationships both domestically and with its surrounding countries.

The Eritrean public responses in dealing with the situation and foiling the above harmful policies are improbable due to the lack of transparency and sharing of concerns. As such, it seems that Eritreans would still have a complicated future in politics and social economics. I am sorry to speculate such a scenario. Although it looks too late that people should exercise to gain their rights, there are still possibilities of public role to press the government into introducing the rule of law to help reconcile some problems. First of all, Eritrea needs peace within herself in order to develop proper relationships.

On the one hand, we have seen the above stated summaries of the main economic and political conditions combined; as well as some possible domestic policies that could be adjusted in the future. On the other hand, let us consider the growing global market challenges, especially to catch-up with progress while still depending on imports. Thereof, not only could we estimate Eritrea’s chance to be self-reliant or not, but also her role to influence in comparison with other nations.

All of the above socio-economic reasons, external relations and especially cooperation with the neighbouring countries according to the reciprocal value of interests can be so helpful for building Eritrea’s economy and improve the way of life. This is envisioned in the upcoming parts of this article.