Editorial Comment: Let’s focus on rapid economic growth

A lot of things are going right in Zimbabwe, as President Mugabe stressed in his Independence address yesterday and the main thrust must now be to build on what we know works and reject what we know is a mistake or a brake on our progress.

Some older industrial concerns have managed to reinvent themselves, find committed investors and reopen or expand.

Quite a few Zimbabweans have translated their skills and ideas into new businesses, found finance and established viable industries, often with much of their supply chain in the country.

These businesses are providing jobs and paying taxes and this is what most people care about: decent jobs for themselves and their families and the sort of services that all governments need to provide and have to finance out of taxes.

For the past few months there has been no electricity load shedding, a topic that dominated many headlines last year and now is just a bad dream. But to maintain that quite remarkable progress and be able to build new power stations as our growing economy needs them, means that we must pay what our electricity actually costs, not what most of us would like to pay.

Zera, the regulator, needs to make public its criteria for setting rates and these should be based on forcing Zesa to be efficient, in the top bracket internationally and ensure that there are adequate revenue flows to finance new stations.

In other words, we must pay what is really needed, but not a fraction of a cent more.

The same sort of criteria is needed as we resuscitate the National Railways of Zimbabwe and Air Zimbabwe.

We need to rebuild these for the demands of the second decade of the 21st century, not some past that probably never was as golden as it might be remembered.

In the private sector, we need to continue simplifying our processes and making it as easy and as cheap as possible to set up new businesses.

The Government and other regulators operating under the Government need to ensure, of course, that workers are not exploited, that working conditions are safe and healthy, that what is being produced is safe and that all in business pay the required taxes and duties as they fall due.

This needs straightforward labour regulations that are fair to everyone, sound health and safety rules and a clear tax code that is easy to implement.

Approval processes should be fast and be based on whether the new business meets a set of obvious, rational and clear criteria.

In major public contracts there has also been progress, with debate centring on how some projects have been costed.

The State Procurement Board is moving up a few gears, but either this body, or some other suitable unit, needs to be able to establish the true likely cost of any project and then compare this with the bids.

Sometimes this might entail hiring an internationally recognised consultant for a couple of weeks, but better that than continual back-biting, suspicion and overpricing.

Like most people everywhere in the world, Zimbabweans moan about life. But the President was right to show the upside, that things are getting better and renewing his Government’s commitment to ensuring that they get better noticeably faster.

The message is clear, that everyone, from individuals to business, must play a positive role to get things better sooner rather than later.