@alma..good to know you are a land economist.

The world needs land economists like you who are brave enough to think outside the 'land' box into 'financial' economics as Mason Gaffney here says.
http://www.wealthandwant...cs/Gaffney_LaaDFoP.html

I remember Prof. Kiamba too in the days when he was Dean, College of Arch & Eng.

Ministry of Info has hired the advisory services of Worldbank/IFC.

The best they can advice Ministry of Info is what we are seeing.

Economics 101 teaches that countries develop when they create wealth. Wealth can only be created through efficient production.

Nurturing ICT talent into new products is the most economical way to create wealth as opposed to inviting multinationals then gaining from employment.
The iHubs and other hubs will create more wealth into the country than Konza city in the long run.

@murchr..true. I hope my arguments can be used to make the world a better place and reduce poverty in developing countries.
In the South Korea park, the 'cities' are several km apart and each is around 200 acres in size[smaller than Kitengela EPZA].


The Kitengela EPZ site has around 500acres vacant. This is not small land. This can be phase 1 and we can have phase 100 or as many phases as sustainable in future[thinking big in a sustainable manner].

By doing so, we will have freed kes 1B tax payer money to be used to lay ICT infrastructure which will result in productivity.

This makes sense to me and its my hope that such an idea can be used by Ministry of Info for the beterment of Kenya as a whole.

On the issue of Govt buying land and reselling to its citizens, my humble opinion is that it could just print the money and cause inflation.
Land owners will not be in a capacity to prevent this. So its not moral for Govt to engage in business since it can potentially be unfair for the citizens.

If govt buys more land, it hampers productivity because land becomes scarce, so its price rises.
When price rises, start-ups will be priced out and will not be able to produce wealth.

Rents will be high hence products will also be expensive . Other countries with cheaper cost of production will thrive at our expense.

This opinion is not cast in stone. If you give a contrary opinion that is convincing, then we will go with your opinion.

Now that the I B is already spent, its important to debate and see if other options can be available especially for future similar projects.

In Isiolo, Govt can acquire as much land as they can since most productivity is in Nairobi.

When Govt acquires land, it becomes scarce since land is a finite resource. This scarcity leads to cost increase. Cost increase leads to cost of productivity going up. Productivity cost rise affects investors since their goods and services are un-affordable/over priced.

Opportunity to create wealth is best provided by saving the KES I Billion and redirecting it into ICT infrastructure or ICT inventors/start up funding or ICT education e.t.c

Govt buying land then reselling to Multinationals or citizens does not increase productivity.

In the long term, towns grow into cities over time e.g Nairobi started with River road and over time, buildings have been demolished,zones rezoned to accommodate the growing city.
In the long term, Nairobi will grow towards Mombasa road past Syokimau and join Machakos,Konza and Kajiado. This is sustainable growth if proper planning ,infrastructure and zoning is done.

For me I don't care what good or bad intentions gov't has.

Gov't should not participate in actively buying and selling land. Beats all purposes for it leasing land to individuals anyway. That's why they have forced acquisitions, where they have to show a need for a project.

Once you allow gov't to buy land from A and sell/lease to B, you have entered the slippery slope of gov't redistributing wealth from those it deems not worthy.

Re-distribution of wealth by gov't should be greatly discouraged. It means that they can come and buy my plot and sell it to Kamau simply because he's a friend to the gov't.

So at the onset the project has economic and moral issues attached.

But I'm still waiting for this ICT component. Everyone still wants to skip it. It is supposed to be the heart of the project, but no one wants to show us the steps this ministry is taking towards growing ICT.

If you mention another awards ceremony or another conference I will know you are not getting the point.

@alma,listen to Prof Kiamba here

http://www.youtube.com/w...LafU&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/w...4FTE&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDd8QAD7toI