adminEconomic Focus Butler Tambo
…Continued from last week
Special Economic Zones proposal for Bulawayo
IN the case of Zimbabwe and with Bulawayo and the Matabeleland provinces in mind, the Government can create six specialised zones called “hubs”. These are the Agricultural Hub, the Zimbabwe Innovation Hub, the Diamond and Gold Hub, the Education Hub, the Health Hub and the Transport Hub. Below is a synopsis of the various “hubs” that Government can develop:
The Agricultural Hub
The Agricultural Hub will aim to promote commercialisation, diversification, investment and employment creation in the agricultural sector.
The hub will create a conducive policy environment that facilitates and supports the development of a sustainable and viable agricultural industry.
The hub aims to be a catalyst for the transformation of both arable and animal production agriculture. For arable agriculture, the hub aims to transform the sector from being predominantly “rain-fed” subsistence farming to being predominantly “irrigated” commercial farming that targets both domestic and export markets. This can include orange production at Zhove Dam in Beitbridge and the resuscitation of citrus production in Esigodini and Umzingwane. Likewise, the Hub aims to transform the animal production sector to be a viable, competitive and profitable commercial sector. In this way, the sector is expected to become competitive in the production of meat and meat products so that they meet the requirements for quality, price and health standards on both the domestic and international markets. It will also aim to revive industries especially agro-based ones – CSC in Bulawayo and resume exports to the European Union (EU) since sanctions have been removed on most state run companies and the beef canning plant in West Nicholson. We need to revive these beef export deals that used to run under the Lome agreements as a country and re-engage the international community and regain our former glory days when CSC used to export as much as 9 500 tonnes of beef to the EU, 12 000 tonnes to Angola, 3 000 tonnes to the Indian Ocean Islands and 1 500 tonnes to Switzerland. Matabeleland because of the sweet veld grass that it has, has to lead in the rebuilding of the national herd which stood at 5 279 000 in 1980 at independence and grew to 6 800 000 in 2000 but has sadly declined again to below 5 500 000. Export earnings from beef which used to yield the country as much as $48 million in 1998 had dropped to a record low of $1 million by 2005 (Sukume and Guveya 2009).
The Zimbabwe Innovation Hub (ZIH)
The Zimbabwe Innovation Hub (ZIH)’s broad objective will be to integrate Zimbabwe into the global economy. Specifically, the ZIH aims to provide a platform for the development of a knowledge economy that will significantly contribute towards economic diversification, creation of new employment, increased productivity and the competitiveness of Zimbabwean goods and services on world markets. To achieve this, the ZIH aims at attracting technology-driven, knowledge intensive businesses, research institutes and advanced training organisations into the country; together with the promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship, utilisation of technology and support for research and development (R&D) in both the public and private sectors. Further, the ZIH aims at making Zimbabwe an attractive and secure business location in the centre of Sub-Saharan Africa through the provision of appropriate economic incentives and the design of modern, high-tech and state-of-the-art infrastructure.
Diamond and Gold Hub
The Zimbabwe Diamond and Gold Hub can be charged with the responsibility of transforming Zimbabwe from a leading rough diamond and gold producer to a world centre for downstream diamond and gold activities. The Diamond and Gold Hub aims to make THE cutting and polishing industry commercially attractive and economically viable on a substantial scale; attract international diamond and gold traders in rough and polished stones; utilise the Zimbabwe story through the development of diamond and gold jewellery to supply niche markets; attract specialised diamond and gold financing and technology to service downstream activities in Zimbabwe, the region and the African continent; and utilise Zimbabwe’s Kimberley Certification Process capabilities to become a secure environment for the transportation of both rough and polished diamonds and gold in and out of the country.
Education Hub
The major objective for the establishment of the Education Hub will be to develop Zimbabwe into a regional centre of excellence for education. The specific objectives of the hub will be: to reduce the number of Zimbabwean students studying outside the country like South Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas (import substitution), attract international students (exporting education) and scholars, promote private investment in education by attracting world class institutions to establish in Zimbabwe and offer quality education, internationalise education and gain global recognition as a provider of quality education, training and research. Further, the Education Hub will aim at capacity building of local institutions eg Zimbabwe School of Mines, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechinc, National University of Science Technology (Nust) and Lupane State University (LSU) and promoting partnerships between local and international institutions. The hub will also aim at creating a conducive environment for the provision of education services through the removal of all barriers to investment in the sector. The Education Hub will work at achieving its mandate through the provision of quality education, training and research in key strategic areas of science, engineering, technology, hospitality and tourism, finance and banking, etc; facilitation of alignment of skills development with national requirements by supporting initiatives of other hubs and sectors through the provision of appropriate skills; and promotion of private sector participation in the education sector through public-private partnerships (PPPs) .
Health Hub
The Health Hub can be established with a view to identifying strategic initiatives and innovations to drive the transformation of quality service delivery throughout the health sector. The Health Hub’s broad objective can be to make Zimbabwe a centre of affordable quality excellence in healthcare service provision. To achieve this, the Health Hub aims to utilise both existing and planned infrastructure, and leverage on private sector capacity by leasing out space in public health facilities, establishing specialist clinical centres of excellence for local use and “medical tourism,” providing state-of-the-art infrastructure for teaching and research for instance at the Joshua Mqabuko Medical Teaching Hospital in Bulawayo, establishing an Aids Research and Expertise Centre at maybe the disused Old Antelope Hospital in Maphisa/Kezi, establishing a Semi-Autonomous Medicines Regulatory Authority and a National Drug Quality Control Laboratory and establishing a National Public Health Laboratory at Mpilo or United Bulawayo Hospitals to not only serve the Matabeleland region but the whole of Zimbabwe and the Sadc region.
Transport Hub
The Transport Hub can be established with a view to complementing the country’s economic diversification endeavours. This can be attained through the provision of integrated, efficient, cost effective and sustainable transport systems in key sectors and strategic investment areas as well as the creation of a conducive environment for the development of the transport sector. Further, the “hub” can aim to develop efficient cross-border road and rail transport linkages eg Trans Limpopo Initiative corridor which sought to twin the Limpopo Provinces of South Africa to the Matabeleland Provinces of Zimbabwe during the 1990s and early 2000s but this project never saw the light of day after great strides and agreements had been signed by Government officials from both countries; attract international carriers through the implementation of Open Skies Policy; and create Zimbabwe’s access to sea transport through the development of dry ports in neighbouring countries. This can be achieved quite easily considering that Matabeleland is the route node of Southern Africa and we have the busiest inland port in the form of Beitbridge border post. It will include sprucing up such border posts and road networks to the Maitengwe border in Plumtree and the road leading there.
Conclusion
In conclusion, like Saki (2015) rightfully observes, the adoption of SEZs is not the silver bullet, but might effectively contribute to getting the country back on track. Inconsistency and incoherence should be inoculated against from the onset, otherwise a year or a decade later we shall be answering what was so special about the zones that they proved uneconomic and unrewarding. If this scheme along with the right policy environment can be created in Zimbabwe it should not be too difficult to revive the Bulawayo, Matabeleland and Zimbabwean economy to be a global competitor of the Sadc region again.
Butler Tambo is a Bulawayo-based Policy Analyst who can be contacted on [email protected] or +263776607524 or by liking the Facebook established to strengthen Zimbabwe’s transportation connectivity both internally and externally.
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