adminTHE State of Nation Address delivered to Parliament by President Mugabe on Tuesday will spur development if all stakeholders play their part.
The address clearly identified priority areas that need urgent attention in order aid development and economic growth.
For decades, foreign investors have been crying foul over long and tiresome procedures they endure in a bid to set up investments in the country.
They complained of red tape, which turned down potential investors who were keen to invest in the country. The doors were closed before them and they opted to go elsewhere.
President Mugabe set the tone when he said Government’s focus was on policies that would improve the business climate and attract Foreign Direct Investment.
He said in line with the Rapid Results Approach Framework, Government endeavors to overhaul the Companies Act and other legislation that hinder the ease of doing business in the country.
He said there would be a push for a robust legislative and regulatory framework to establish a One-stop investment centre that streamlined processes and procedures.
“This is now a very urgent and high priority matter for which those responsible will be held to account. Government acknowledges that unsound procurement practices are slowing down economic growth in the country,” he said.
Corruption which has grown to unimaginable proportions is bleeding the economy with the caner haunting virtually all sectors of the economy – be private or public.
It is imperative that Government tackles corruption head-on for it negatively affects economic growth.
Closely linked to this, President Mugabe emphasised to instill good corporate governance in state-run institutions such as parastatals and local authorities.
He also talked of the need to reform the way parastatals do their business as they are a key factor in turning around the economy.
“In this regard Government has now embarked on a programme of parastatals reform which has prioritised 10 strategic state enterprises to urgent attention. In each case specialised audits are to be undertaken and various reform and turnaround options identified,” he said.
The President’s speech was spot-on on the need kick start the economy by paying big attention to infrastructural development in key energy, water, transport and ICT sectors.
The development of these key sectors has a positive downstream effect on other sectors of the economy that depend on such industries for raw inputs and energy.
For example, meaningful infrastructural development on the energy sector, particularly electricity generations will have a plus on the overall performance of various sectors of the economy.
Closer home, incessant power cuts have negatively affected winter wheat production in Middle Sabi – a situation that has greatly affected the level of wheat production in the country and hence affected the price of bread.
Currently most industries are running at below capacity due to load shedding, so if electricity generation improves, production will go up which entails more employment.
In the same vein the availability of water is a key factor in economic development for its industrial and domestic use.
Some industries have been forced to fork out millions of dollars and dig boreholes because municipalities are failing to avail adequate water, a situation that has pushed production costs up and therefore affect prices of the end-product.
Such expensive local products cannot be competitive on the international market hence they cannot generate forex for the country.
This might explain the continued importation of finished products into the country.
When that happens the country remains a net importer.
Online Reporter