Our salvation lies in manufacturing

development.
At the top of the ladder with theories for economic development are politicians who never miss an opportunity to state their views whether those utterances have substance or not. As I said earlier, many captains of industry have ready solutions to the economic problems but, if the truth be told, their advice is ignored.
In many countries, after the world economic meltdown that began in 2008, various governments are courting industrialists to provide solutions to the unemployment crisis. The debt crisis was caused not by banks as is generally believed but by governments that spent money that they did not have, mostly to prop up their administrations in order to stay in power.
In a very telling outburst by the new IMF boss, she told the Greeks to start paying their taxes in order to pay off their debts. Tax evasion in Greece is a perennial problem. In Zimbabwe, if all loopholes for tax evasion were closed, the country could have paid its debts by now.
Even the empowerment and indigenisation debates are, to a large extent, a preserve of the politicians not our industrialists. The country has many successful managers of business who should have been playing a major role in the transformation of the economy. At present the political agenda has taken centre stage to the detriment of promoting economic development.
Recently I had a chance meeting with a Chinese businessman. According to him, Zimbabwe is not paying much attention to the transfer of technology to revive the manufacturing industry. The country is over dependent on South Africa for simple manufactured goods not only foodstuffs but electronic gadgets that could be assembled here.
Yes, he believed that China was interested in primary products to fire its factories back home. What the country should do with the money is to set up factories to manufacture some simple products here in partnership with Chinese companies. Instead of politicians visiting China all the time, our industrialists should also make frequent visits to China to learn more about production.
Not many years ago, the British industry organisation made a survey of 100 large companies. What they found was that 90 percent of the boards of directors in these companies were made up of people with a scientific background. In the US, most MBA graduates have a scientific background. In France, those in business have degrees in mathematics. In China it is the engineering degrees for its business people.
The business establishments in these countries is driven by those with scientific degrees because production requires  those who understand the scientific and technological processes. Accountants or other fields no longer run the business of manufacturing. There is no doubt that marketing, distribution, etc, will require experts in other fields like banking.
The country’s successful business people must play a major role in expanding their enterprises to employ more young people. Not only that but they must be given opportunities to venture into manufacturing for the domestic and export markets.
What are the problems in venturing       into manufacturing or assembling simple electronic goods? The Chinese businessman says that the equipment to set up factories is available in China but it must be bought with hard cash. The main reason for teaming up with Chinese investors                    is to find ready markets in the Asian region.
Mining and agriculture can be transformed with the process of value addition that can only come about with a deliberate policy of investment into factory machinery.
The ever-growing obsession with diamond money to prop up Government expenditure will not bring manufacturing into our industry. Private companies are being encouraged to source their own credit facilities, which is a mammoth task when interests rates on borrowed money are very high.
Government has to work together with industrialists to promote sustainable economic policies that would have an emphasis on manufacturing. There is an over concentration on the service sector that cannot survive without the productive sector. Whereas industry used to depend on artisans it is high time that engineers form the core of our com-panies.
Jobs can only be created by the manufacturing sector. Industrialists must come up with tangible manufacturing processes that can be funded by Government or attract investment to provide funding requirements.