Mitchell John and Stevens Paul, Ending Dependence Hard Choices for Oil-Exporting States

Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2008, 42 p. The authors would like to thank all the participants of the Resource Depletion, Dependence and Development project for their valuable contributions to the study. In particular, they thank researchers Daniela Schmidt and Elisa Cassinadri; the expert commentators, Prof. Richard Auty (Angola and Kazakhstan), Ramin Isayev (Azerbaijan), Tamara Lynch and Dr Gareth Price (Timor-Leste), Jon Marks (Algeria), Prof. Timothy Niblock (Saudi Arabia), Willy Olsen (Norway), Stan Rerri (Nigeria), Dr Umar Said (Indonesia) and DrMahani Zainal Abidin (Malaysia) whose working papers are forthcoming; Denny Ellerman, Dermot Gately, Glada Lahn and Tormod Slåtsveen for their comments on the draft; and Margaret May as editor of the report. This project has been made possible by financial support from the Asian Development Bank, the Royal Norwegian Ministryof Petroleum and Energy and BP, none of whom bears responsibility for the analysis and opinions expressed in thereport. Based on a major study of twelve hydrocarbon exporting countries, this report shows that the oil-price boom does not guarantee economic sustainability for these countries, which face hard choices over consumption, development and growth. It also estimates the timeframes they have in which to make the necessary changes.