NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, April 4, 2005

Indeed, with the South Asia coastline in ruins, there is an opportunity to drive the reconstruction process through an enterprise-based model organized around a vision of sustainable development. For visionary companies, this offers the chance to leapfrog directly to clean technology, wireless telecommunications, distributed generation of renewable energy, point of use water purification, sustainable agriculture, and environmentally-sound building techniques.
For the financial sector, the opportunity exists to help local people pull themselves back up by the bootstraps through micro-finance and micro-entrepreneurship, rather than perpetuating a deepening cycle of aid-based dependence.
In short, the next wave could be an orchestrated effort to bring inclusive capitalism to the region, with the potential to diffuse forever the insurgency movements that result from inequity, poverty, isolation, and hopelessness. Imagine the possibility of creating common cause with Indonesia –the largest Muslim nation in the World — to create a sustainable future for the country’s devastated west coast. It might be possible to transform an entire generation’s view of the United States and western capitalism. The time is now for the major corporations of the world to step up to this challenge — to forge the partnerships with the multilaterals, governments, NGOs, and local players necessary to make it happen.
Story found here.