FDI should go beyond mere jobs

INVESTMENT is on everyone’s lips these days. Given the state of our economy, the desire for urgent investment from every source is easy to appreciate. Yet we must take that with caution. We believe Government can encourage Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by promulgating appropriate legal instruments and still manage to empower its nationals.

FDI should not be misconstrued to mean anyone can come into the country with a container load of cheap consumer goods to open a corner shop or setting up some makeshift mining structure in the gold belt for quick self-enrichment.

That is not the definition of FDI we need as a country. Zimbabweans are yearning to benefit from FDI that brings sustainable economic empowerment, not offering cheap labour.

It is against this backdrop that we believe no matter the size of the FDI, it should not give the investor the right to economically exploit local people and leave them impoverished, which has been the case in much of Africa, and the reason why the continent remains economically poor despite an abundance of resources.

So, as our national economic planners cut deals with foreign investors, it is our hope that they will come up with win-win arrangements that leave indelible marks on the socio-economic lives of Zimbabweans instead of ghost mining towns devoid of economic activity.

We believe genuine investment should deliver value to communities in which the firms operate, while the investor gets an appropriate return for the risk and delayed enjoyment. Minerals are finite resources. Government should therefore have a share in the extractive sector involving minerals like platinum, gold and diamonds to be able to keep something for future generations.

FDI should not be measured solely on the number of jobs. Important though these are, there must be value created, value that many future generations of Zimbabwe will enjoy as a national inheritance bequeathed to them by our political leadership.

This means Zimbabwe can enjoy FDI from any part of the world while demanding a fair share for its resources.

Economic empowerment for locals does not mean discouraging genuine investors; it means crafting policies that ensure sustainable economic benefits for both parties to the deal.

Instead of leaving us with ghost towns that later become settlements for poor people in our communities, businesspeople or countries that bring FDI should do so in the spirit of fair business practices for mutual benefit.

We envisage FDI that leaves local communities with clean water, tarred roads, dip tanks, state- of-the-art schools and above all, have knowledge transfer programmes to locals for sustainability. The knowledge should enable locals to form smaller companies and run them in case the bigger firms close shops due to unforeseen circumstances.

It’s our hope that in future giant mining companies should be made to construct their head offices in the towns and cities near their operations, structures that can be enjoyed by generations to come even if the firms closes shop.

There should be commitment to be part of the community where the resources are extracted.

It is short-sighted in our view to tout figures of higher FDI in neighbouring countries without looking at the overall impact of such investment in the lives of the people, yet that should be the aim of bringing in investors.

We therefore expect the leadership under the new dispensation to set clear policies and priority areas for FDI to quicken economic development.

We have in mind things like transport infrastructure, manufacturing, energy and local processing plants when it comes to mining.

Unki in Shurugwi has just shown that it is possible to remain viable and profit immensely by setting up a processing plant yet more established companies have been playing hide-andseek with the law and still export unprocessed minerals.

There is need to look beyond the surface to find out what it is they are doing for Zimbabwe beside jobs that pay peanuts to our people.