The Sunday News
Gabriel Masvora Business Editor
THE economy has the potential to rise again as Zimbabwe has a number of enabling factors that if fully exploited will contribute greatly to improved productivity that will change the economic fortunes of the country, a leading academic and expert has said.In a wide-ranging interview, National University of Science and Technology Technopark Department director, Dr Eli Mtetwa, said all signs and ingredients were there but there was a need to co-ordinate and manage them so that the economy could start ticking again.
The university’s Technopark Department is one of the leading academic research bodies that helps co-ordinate the interface between academics and industry.
“The future of Zimbabwe is bright because we have a number of factors in our favour. The first and the most important is our population which has a good work ethic and this is more important than even the natural resources. We are also a small country which makes it easy to manage,” he said.
Dr Mtetwa said the peace in the country was one of the greatest advantages it had over other countries and this coupled with high literacy rate was also advantageous.
“We have a high literacy rate although I must say in Matabeleland the rate is still down. We sometimes overlook this but nonetheless on average we have the manpower to drive a modern economy. We also need to utilise the diaspora to achieve some of our objectives. Zimbabwe also has a good climate and we can use that to promote tourism and from this only we can attract tourists which are more than our population per year.”
He said the Government-initiated Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation also emphasised the need to value-add natural resources which would be a major economic boost as this would create a number of jobs and open more avenues for revenue generation.
Dr Mtetwa also talked about a number of issues including the state of industries, issue of de-industrialisation, Special Economic Zones, among others.
Below are snippets from the discussion.
On state of industry
“Most companies not only in Bulawayo but the whole country have gone down and are now operating in a survival mode. They are battling short term issues such as how to meet the wage bill at the end of the month. It has been proven that during an economic recession when most companies are under stress, the research and development side of business suffers. Industry right now is not putting efforts in innovation and new technology because of the short term focus. This affects long term plans and that is why it is difficult for industry to be receptive of suggestions that are coming out of academic institutions.”
On Special Economic Zones
“The Government has done well on the consultations so far. Some might think that it is taking long to implement the idea but I think consultations are a big part of the whole programme. Right now they are working on building a consensus among stakeholders. There are a lot of things that have to be done differently once the concept starts working. There are a number of organisations such as Zimra which will be needed to address the fiscal side since there will be different tax regimes.
There is also a need to engage service suppliers like in the case of Bulawayo there is need to get assurances from the city council on the issue of water supply. Companies like Zesa must also be engaged to ensure that they supply enough power to these economic zones. We also need to address the issue of infrastructure. Investors come to make profit and not to lose money so we need to come up with the best incentives.
Remember when we come up with special economic zones we will be competing with other countries as well that already have these facilities.
On how to implement SECs
“I know in other countries special economic zones are mapped according to areas or sectors. Like for example in Bulawayo we can identify Belmont area to have the incentives. Of course the area has infrastructure such as buildings, power lines and in some cases rail links and this can be a major attraction to investors. We can also say let’s promote textile companies only. However, my idea is to just declare the whole city and let the investors decide where they want to put their money. They own the money and they must choose where they want to put it.
However, when we implement the concept, we must not plan perpetually but we must adopt an experimental mindset which will allow us to correct our mistakes during the course of implementation.”
On de-industrialisation
This is not something that started yesterday. From our study a few years ago, we discovered that de-industrialisation started before independence. It started during the UDI period when companies started looking at head offices as the centres of operation. More companies started closing other branches to focus on head offices which were mainly in Harare. The system has all along been going on slowly until now we see the full extent of its effects.
Before independence most industrial activity that took place in the country happened under the Import Substitution Policy. However, by the late 1980s to 1990s technology also began to overtake some of the machinery we were using as some were now obsolete. We then lost competitiveness because it was now expensive to produce some of the goods. This resulted in some companies folding.
Another problem was that of loss of feed stocks. Most of industry was being supported by agricultural produce. They were processing agricultural goods and when the sector went down it also affected the companies. We also relied on steel from then Ziscosteel and with production going down it meant many companies were affected.
On the role of Technopark and other academic institutions in economic revival
NUST basically is an institution which was formed to respond to the needs of industry. It is capable of forming the foundation of new technology advancement. At Technopark we are basically an interface between academic and industry. We also actively participate in business organisations such as CZI (Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries) and ZNCC (Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce). We seek partnerships with industry and different sectors on how to improve productivity.
We have a textile department which is working with companies like David Whitehead. We have an electronics department which is working with companies like Econet, NetOne and TelOne and we have the department of mining which also works with mining companies. The Faculty of Commerce is also there to co-ordinate management strategies and marketing issues. We also have a Centre for Continuing Education which carries out short courses on different personnel in industry. I can simply say the bulk of what is done at Nust is usable in industry which is a major contribution to economic revival.
