PDRC TALKS TONIGHT

July 14, 2019. It was well organised event, attended by the elite and establishment of Puntland in Garowe. The attendees were highly attentive and well behaved, untraditionally quiet for a Somali gathering of that size.The audience and guests had received warmly the Keynote Speaker, Dr. Ali Isse Abdi, who was honoured to inaugurate the opening of a new PDRC resource library before the start of PDRC Talks event tonight.Dr Abdi had elegantly presented a well thought narrative of the planned or projected East African Economic Integration among Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Ethiopia.Audience were quite curious to know how that Economic Integration could work amid mistrust and suspicion between nations in the Region, given known and heavy historical burden in the way of cooperation of any kind. Dr Abdi tried hard to use historical parallels of Europe before embarking upon the creation of European Common Market, and eventually European Union (EU).Audience were asking Dr Abdi the sticking question as to why FGS was not transparent about any treaty or agreement it had entered into regarding the cited economic Integration. Dr Abdi was tight-lipped about any information on FGS policy on the issue or any of its commitments to the East African Deal. When pressed to give plausible answers for FGS silence on the matter, Dr. Ali had dodged all questions in regard to this matter by pushing others in the Panel Discussion to answer them on his behalf.In the light of the above development, PDRC should act as an independent research centre that is committed to facilitating frank and candid debates on all issues of public interest. It shouldn’t be screening and censoring hard talk and taugh questions. With Dr Ali Isse Abdi, PDRC was too soft, and unnecessarily, politically too correct, an unexpected cultural behaviour from a research Think Tank acting as a loyal government Commission.Dr Ali Isse Abdi was a Puntland Presidential Election Candidate 2019. Currently, he is the leading economic and Financial Advisor with the FGS. He is known to be the main Resource Person for the projected East African Economic Integration. He is closely associated to both Somali and Ethiopian government circles.https://ismailwarsame.blog@ismailwarsame

Dr Ali Isse Abdi on the East African Economic Integration