Resources must work for the people

DR MICHAEL Gondwe, the governor of the Bank of Zambia, says despite high growth figures, mining is not benefiting the country. Dr Gondwe says this is so because there is no meaningful participation of indigenous entrepreneurs. “Look at the mines…the space of Zambians driving copper to the export market is very small and yet this is something Zambians can do. Zambians can buy trucks by getting loans and other arrangements but they are not there. If you look at who is providing nuts and bolts to the mines, I don’t think there is any Zambian doing that. All are imported and yet things can be manufactured here in Zambia,” Dr Gondwe observes.

Dr Gondwe says Zambians are reluctant to engage in economic activities yet they continue to complain about being economically excluded. “Even at individual basis, if you go into compounds, who are the ones selling blocks? Just making blocks is being done by foreigners! In the compounds, who are the young people having kiosks inside their homes? It is the Rwandese and Burundese and not Zambians. And yet we are complaining that the growth of the economy is not trickling down. Trickling down will not come on its own; it has to be individual effort at every level,” says Dr Gondwe.

It cannot be disputed that in order to derive benefit from an economy, people must be able to participate in it; and for most people, the primary means of economic participation is through work and business. Indeed throughout human history, it has been a basic norm that all are expected to participate in the economy, and thereby contribute to the economy. Those who don’t do so have generally been excluded from the benefits of the economy.

However, if society expects all its members to make a contribution to the growth of the economy, then it should make it possible for them to do so.
In this regard, a profound responsibility rests on both the political authorities and those who hold powerful positions in the economy. Everything possible needs to be done to maximise the participation of the Zambian people in the economy of their country.

It doesn’t make sense to boast about economic growth when the citizens are not benefiting from it in any meaningful way. The economic development of a country should have as its object to enable the citizens to participate in it and in that way enable them to live full and satisfying lives. The mining industry of our country should be there to serve the citizens, not the citizens to serve the mining industry.

Without increased citizen participation, very little benefit will accrue to our people from the mining activities going on. Very little of the growth in Gross Domestic Product will be consumed here, it will continue to be consumed elsewhere. We are recording high economic growth rates, but why is it not benefiting our people by raising their living standards? This is so simply because our people are not meaningfully participating in it.

The mining activities going on in this country have very little local participation. In the first place, we don’t even have Zambians owning mines. All our mining activities are owned and controlled by foreign investors.

Only an increase in the participation of Zambians in the economy of their country can help meet the goals of the people. There is no other alternative. Foreign investors will and should always be welcome, but they must understand and accept that the most appreciated investment in terms of capital, plant and equipment translates only into a part of the investment required; the other is provided by the Zambian people through their natural resources, the minerals themselves, and should not be made to count for nothing.

This means that part of the ownership of their mines should remain in the hands of Zambians, who own the natural resources, for the benefit of the country’s current and future generations.

This is not some strange thinking on our part. Almost all rich nations of the world have approached their economic development in this way at one time or other. In fact, economic history shows that all of today’s rich nations use nationalistic policies to promote their economies and their people. Let’s learn something from how the Americans, Japanese, French, Chinese, Scandinavians, Italians, Taiwanese, South Koreans, Singaporeans and others developed their economies using all sorts of citizen empowerment schemes.

There is need for the government, and indeed for all our politicians, to advocate and push for young indigenous Zambians to step forward and pursue enterprise development. This is the only way the rights of our people can be asserted.

Our balance sheet is today weak because our mineral resources are not captured on the balance sheets of the transnational mining corporations.
The value of the mineral resources should be ours. And the investors should be our partners, and they should bring in their equipment and together we should work to exploit this value.

Right now, the transnational mining corporations are exploiting our mineral resources for their own benefits because very little of what is coming from there is benefiting our people. If we don’t change things, we will be mortgaging the future of our people by paying the mining corporations to exploit our resources for their own ends. The value of our resources should represent something that can be translated into ownership and control of mining ventures by our people.

We have no way out. We have to transform our relations with investors by ensuring that the true value of our resources is taken into account in investment transactions. For now, we are stifling our people, leaving them to wallow in abject poverty while our resources enrich others abroad.
Again, we are not against foreign investors. We are not opposed to foreign investors. Not in the least. We should always welcome foreign investment, but on terms that make the Zambian people realise maximum benefit from their God-given resources. What we should seek is partnership with foreign investors on a win-win basis.

Dr Gondwe is talking of very little participation by Zambians in the transportation of copper to the export markets. It is not easy for a Zambian to transport copper to the ports of South Africa or Namibia. The contracts to transport Zambian copper are not obtained here in Zambia. They are in the hands of foreign agents. One has to go to South Africa to obtain a contract to transport Zambian copper. As a Zambian transporter, you are hired and paid by South African agents to transport Zambian copper. Who can change this situation? Is it the individual Zambian transporter or the Zambian government? The Zambian authorities know about these things very, very well. But why are they not taking corrective measures?
The problem is we have politicians and other authorities in this country who represent and speak not for the people but for foreign investors.

Of course, they are not doing this for nothing. There are greater benefits for those who speak for foreign investors than for those who speak for the people.