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Zimbabweans are anxiously waiting for the presentation of the 2014 national budget which, according to the Finance Minister, Cde Patrick Chinamasa, will be presented next month. The budget has over the years been presented mid-November but this year, Cde Chinamasa has pushed it to next month to allow adequate time to consult.
The budget should obviously dovetail with the Government’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Social-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) which was recently approved by Cabinet. Zim Asset will guide the turnaround and development of the economy for the next five years. It is our fervent hope that Minister Chinamasa’s budget will address the high expectations of all sectors of our society.
The unemployed youths, the peasants, the industrialists, the small to medium enterprises, farmers and those in the informal sector, are all looking forward to the national budget because they have high hopes that it will address their challenges. The country has during the past 10 years or so witnessed de-industrialisation which has seen many companies either closing shop altogether or scaling down production.
The de-industrialisation, as rightly observed by Cde Chinamasa, has affected almost all towns and cities and reviving industries should therefore be one of the Government’s top priorities. Zimbabwe has in fact been turned into a retailing economy as most of the goods found on the shelves of many of our retail shops are imported.
There is therefore an urgent need to reverse this trend which is not only stifling economic growth but is denying citizens job opportunities. In Bulawayo alone more than 20 000 workers lost their jobs at the peak of the economic meltdown which saw more than 80 companies either closing or relocating to other cities and towns.
The Zimbabwean economy is agro-based and the budget should therefore allocate more resources to the agricultural sector which provides raw materials to industries. Farmers have during the past five years not produced enough even to feed the nation and this has largely been blamed on under-funding. We therefore want to implore Cde Chinamasa to address this shortcoming in his national budget.
The growth of the economy as already stated, is anchored on agriculture so a boost in agricultural production should spur economic growth. President Mugabe, in his inaugural address after his swearing in ceremony in August, said the mining sector will be the centrepiece of the country’s economic recovery. The national budget should therefore ensure that this sector plays its pivotal role of turning around the economy.
President Mugabe noted that vast mineral deposits remained unknown and therefore unexplored hence the need to explore new deposits. Zimbabwe, we have said it before, cannot continue to mourn about sanctions but should instead find ways of growing the economy under the prevailing conditions. The country’s advantage is that it is endowed with vast natural resources that include minerals, gas, timber, game and many other such resources.
Many of the countries that have imposed sanctions on this country are in fact after its resources hence some of them are now calling for the unconditional lifting of the illegal sanctions. The national budget, in our view, should be based on available resources and if external funding comes along, it will be a welcome bonus. It is a fact that the manufacturing sector is in a crisis and there is urgent need to revive our industries.
Many of the companies are in urgent need of capital injection, not only to provide working capital but to also replace obsolete equipment which is largely to blame for the high cost of production which has seen locally produced goods failing to compete internationally. Cde Chinamasa’s job is made more complex by the fact that he has many competing priorities against a background of limited resources at his disposal. After the wide consultations, we are confident that Cde Chinamasa will come up with a balanced budget that will address all sectors of the economy.
Online Reporter