crisis in the middle to late 1990s. the increasing savings - investment gap has remained a source of concern for policymakers particularly in the face of high domestic unemployment. technological progress, as mentioned earlier, enhances growth, as it makes it possible to produce more with the same quantity of resources. this boosts the potential level of output of the economy. the unprecedented growth experienced in the united states in the last couple of years is said to have been spearheaded by technology related sectors. it is important to note, however, that the pace of technological change is likely to depend on the quality and relevance of education that a country provides to its citizens. education has been identified as one of the priority sectors and a lot of resources have been allocated to this sector since independence. the budgetary allocation to the two ministries of education has increased from about 18 % of total expenditure in 1990 to about 24 % in 1999. this is quite a substantial amount bearing in mind that low - income countries spend on average 13 % of their national budget on education. despite the sizeable budgetary allocation to the education sector, a consensus seems to emerge that suggests that the output from our education system is not commensurate with the input. our schools dropout and repetition rates are the highest compared to other similar countries, such as zimbabwe, mauritius and botswana. for example, the rate of grade repetition in namibia is as high as 25 % compared to an average of about 5 % for these countries. chart share of total public expenditure on education, 1990 and 1999 e ducat ion e xp e ndit ur e as % of t ot al e xpe ndit ur e education as % total expdt namibia low income countries ( avg ) what should also be of concern is that a breakdown of the total education budget into type of expenditure reveals worrying trends. the personnel costs of the primary education budget accounts for about 88 % whilst personnel costs of the secondary education accounts for about 73 % of total secondary budget during 1999 / 2000. if we accept the argument that human capital is essential for economic growth, then there could be a case for re - evaluating the type and quality of education we are providing. this is necessary, not only to ensure consistency with the long - term development needs of the country, but also to increase social returns on our investment in education from the current low levels, as reflected in the high level of unemployment, especially among our youth. 5. main elements in future strategy looking now into the future,

. therefore, their labor and depreciation cost reduction was prioritized and the realignment of their business portfolio, which would enhance their value - added, was postponed. as a result, these firms continued to maintain low - profit or less - competitive businesses. their investment was distortedly affected - - r & d investment, for instance - - and they delayed strengthening their promising businesses. furthermore, along with waning profitability, i think that firms have been biased further toward avoiding risks for fear of occurrence of unexpected major economic shocks. it seems that the combination of these factors has led to a 30 - year slump in productivity and to low growth, and japan has been left behind in the tide of global growth. looking at trends in japanese enterprises'labor productivity by size, that of large enterprises, after marking a significant decline due to the gfc, finally surpassed in fiscal 2018 the fiscal 2007 level. on the other hand, labor productivity of medium - sized enterprises and small and medium enterprises ( smes ) only showed a small decline at the time of the gfc. however, the improvement observed thereafter for both types of enterprises has been only moderate, and thus not strong enough to drive the productivity growth of japan's economy as a whole ( chart 9 ). b. changes in economic conditions and the need for structural reforms japan faces major changes, such as digitalization and carbon reduction. as digitalization progresses further, people will be free from time and space constraints. in society 5. 0 - - the concept of a future society proposed by the japanese government - - cyber and real space will be highly integrated. in such a society, overcoming challenges and creating new value will be more appreciated, not just increasing business scale and efficiency. with regard to carbon reduction, the automobile industry, which has underpinned japan's growth and employment for many years, is confronted with the worldwide trend toward ending new sales of gasolinepowered vehicles. as electric vehicles come to be used widely, it seems possible that the market environment could change drastically into a highly commoditized or digital - oriented one. under these circumstances, the japanese government declared in its action plan1 that the next driving forces of growth would be digital and green areas, and that it would support reinforcement of japan's r & d capabilities in the long term to this end. the government also made clear its aim to create an environment where startups and smes in japan grow, and to support smes'efforts to raise