adminrapidly, one would ask if we have enough systems to provide the skilled professionals, artisans and managers a ground to nurture their ambition.
This situation is likely to worsen, as an ever-shrinking proportion of the world’s population is able to provide the goods and services required by all.
The income gap between the wealthy and unemployed poor continues to grow raising another potential source of conflict.
Scientists forecast that there might be no commercial fishing by 2048 as present levels of fishing are causing stocks to decline to less than 10 percent of maximum catches recorded.
The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature issued a joint report in 2000 that said: “The world’s seas, fresh waters, forests and croplands are being exploited at such a rate that nothing will be left by 2075”.
Also food shortages and food price hikes that were experienced by the world in 2008 may be the shape of things to come.
The transport industry is one of the most likely to be impacted by the combination of rising standards of living in the developing world; Zimbabwe is not left out of this radar.
There could be a move to hydrocarbon efficient vehicles. Transport infrastructure will have difficult coping with forecast increases in traffic.
As the average standard of living in a country rises, so too does the number of poor people moving from the countryside to unemployment in the city as part of a search of a better lifestyle.
One of the main functions of the Government is to ensure economic development, which basically refers to sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities to promote standards of living and prosperity.
Global Warming
Another major problem that looms on the horizon and one that probably is already upon us and exerting its effects is the phenomenon of global warming.
It can be argued endlessly whether global warming is man-made or whether it is a naturally occurring phenomenon. However, the empirical evidence certainly shows that global warming is indeed occurring.
This is made manifest in changing rainfall patterns and the actual increases in measured surface temperatures.
In the last 20 years, Zimbabwe has been hit with the extremes of weather, since 1987, we have experienced the six warmest years on record.
We have also had to deal with 10 droughts during this time, leaving us with less freshwater and destroyed biodiversity.
Our agricultural zones have now also shifted. For people already balancing precariously on the poverty line this means a decrease production of the country’s staple food, maize along with a decline in livestock production as it becomes difficult to find pastures.
Water is likely to become a problem in two respects; with less rainfall there will be greater stress on our supplies as the water table lowers, but when the rains do occur they will continue to happen with greater intensity, increasing the risk of floods and other natural disasters.
Zimbabwe must prepare for what threatens to be one of the most serious food security challenges of the 21st century.
In the financial sector, technology is also allowing stock exchanges of the developing and developed worlds to merge and provide sophisticated trading products.
A shift is taking place from traditional money managers to sovereign wealth funds managing the proceeds from huge trade surpluses, hedge funds and private equity groups, all of which are less transparent and relatively unregulated.
Our challenge in Zimbabwe is to make the best use of our resources to educate our population and provide infrastructure to produce at a competitive price.
Zimbabwe has a distinct or potential competitive advantage in such as the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals from ethanol extracted from sugarcane and development of emerging industries such as diamond mining in Marange.
These can lead to the creation of a vibrant jewellery-making sector or manufacturing of diamond tools using abundant industrial diamonds.
Fuels
A serious problem looming over the horizon is that of fuel shortages due to the peaking in production and subsequent decline in output of three of the world’s most important energy sources that is oil, gas and uranium ore.
The world’s output of all these commodities is described by what’s known as the Hubbert Curve, which describes how the output of each of these energy resources
will peak at a certain point in time but thereafter production of the commodity go into terminal decline.
At the same time the world demand for the same commodity will either grow or remain constant thereby producing a supply shortfall, pushing up prices and producing a state of scarcity for that resource.
This can lead to political instability, economic problems and even war when countries use force of arms to try to secure their energy supplies.
The estimates for the time of peak gas range from around 2020 to 2030 and that for peak uranium at around 2025 to 2035.
Globalisation
Without a doubt, the world is becoming one place like no time recorded before in history.
This phenomenon is labelled the Global Village. It is characterised by an integration and coming together of all the people and spheres of human activity around the world through trade, economic integration, political union and cultural exchange.
However, this coming together of humanity is accompanied by a host of difficulties and seemingly intractable problems that derive partly from cultural, ideological and religious differences, but also from the perceived injustices of this world, its iniquity and the exploitative nature of some international relationships.
Though humanity is coming together, we still live in a world of ideological and religious differences, mutual distrust and enmity.
Generally speaking, international trade is a good thing. There are, however, problems which accompany this increased global flow of goods, services, ideas and people.
Even though international trade benefits the vast majority of people in this world overall, there will at the same time be winners and losers.
In a globally competitive market place some firms, those that have the most attractive products and services, will see an increase in business.
Like the legendary Bob Marley sings — “Time alone — Oh, time will tell.”
Till next time, keep them rolling.
- Shelter Hamandishe-Chieza is a management consultant. She holds over a decade of management experience and is at the final stages of a Management of Business Administration degree with a local university. She can be contacted at [email protected].
Online Reporter