Online Reporter
The Herald, 15 May 1986
THE Government has been urged to identify and support progressive businesses to help Zimbabwe win the continuing war for economic liberation.
The call was made yesterday by the president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, Mr Ernest Chiweshe, at the opening of this year’s ZNCC congress in Mutare.
This was essential because while the “war for economic liberation has taken a decisive direction in some sectors of our economy, there are pockets of resistance which would “turn the whole economic struggle into a war of attrition unless the Government stepped in.
He stressed the importance of establishing the kind of economic environment in Zimbabwe which would improve and maintain business viability. This would help create the capital needed to develop the economy, encourage productive investment, produce the products wanted by Zimbabweans and, most importantly, create more jobs.
The major challenge was therefore to find a formula that created the business growth needed to help establish an enter prising economy. This formula should include realistic pricing policies, infrastructural support and adequate financial facilities and extension services.
Referring to this year’s congress theme for rural development through business growth, Mr Chiweshe said an incentive package was particularly needed to promote rural businesses to enable them to meet rural consumer demand in a competitive manner.
The recent drought and recession had highlighted the fact that the “business community can no longer sit back”. “In fact, the changing of patterns of consumption in the urban areas together with the smallness the current urban consumer market has emphasised the urgent need to develop new areas of consumption, new products and new policies which would encourage the diversification of economic activities in the peripheral areas as a basis for development.”
Lessons for today
- Mr Chiweshe frames development as a “war for economic liberation”, implying that structural inequalities, market dominance, and resistance to transformation may persist after independence. Economic freedom requires deliberate policy choices, not just market forces.
- Government has a strategic role in supporting productive businesses. The State should not support all businesses equally, but should identify and back progressive, productive firms.
- The call is not for blind subsidies, but for strategic support to firms that invest productively, create jobs, expand local production and support national development goals.
- The push for rural business incentives reflects recognition that rural areas hold untapped markets. Over reliance on urban consumers limits growth. Rural enterprises can stimulate local economies.
- Development succeeds when public policy and private initiative reinforce each other. Hence Sustainable development requires an active partnership between a developmental state and a productive, innovative private sector anchored in diversification, rural inclusion, and job creation.
