The President cannot do it alone

Command Agriculture has put the country on the path of food self-sufficiency, increased rural incomes and better living standards. Agriculture’s influence, as a sector which supplies 60 percent of raw materials to industry and employs more than 70 percent

AS PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Government knuckles down to business, the task is obviously daunting but the prospects for economic recovery are bright.

The challenges the new team faces are huge.

However, the task to transform Zimbabwe into middle-income economy by 2030 doesn’t lie with Government alone as it is in everybody’s interest.

Every Zimbabwean is duty-bound to play their part.

The conduct of the July 30 elections, through which Zimbabweans conducted themselves in an admirably peaceful and orderly manner, clearly indicate an inherent cohesiveness that can be tapped as social capital to spearhead national development.

Quite clearly, Zimbabweans have the ability to chart their own way forward.

In itself, President Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF’s victory which was built on a solid aspirational campaign to uplift people out of poverty and reclaim the country’s status as a Jewel of Africa encapsulates the Zimbabwean Dream.

A dream of building a genuinely unified independent State that panders to the whims and caprices of its people.

Now the real work of crystallising election promises into tangible policies begins.

President Mnangagwa’s leadership, however, infectiously inspires confidence. He is reputed as an efficient, hardworker and a doer. Most of his promises come to pass. But he cannot do it alone. The country has to rise above parochial and superficial political differences and forge a united front to deal with the challenges that currently confront Zimbabwe.

The current negative energy, especially on social media, doesn’t not help rally the country’s cause.

The new political administration has been preaching about the virtues of the dignity of hard work, which necessarily implies that there is need for a shift in mind-set and a reset in the way we do things.

Clinging to the old habits of bureaucratic sloth, inefficiencies and shortcuts will take us nowhere.

It is only a sure path to mutually assured destruction.

Over the ages, socialist political doctrines have emerged out of the realisation that self-indulgencies cannot work for the common good of both communities and societies.

A “collectivisation” of goals and aspirations can, therefore, lead to mutually assured development.

There is no room for slackening if the Second Republic is to achieve Vision 2030.

Leapfrogging other developing countries, some of which do not have the inconveniences of dealing with sanctions or ill-will from hostile countries, is not easy.

However, the signal coming from Government through the appointment of a refreshing Cabinet and a planned shake up of the bureaucracy, is quite heartening.

Incompetent bureaucrats should be shown the door.

Further, Government systems need to be strengthened so that they become responsive to the needs of Zimbabweans and investors.

Equally, there is need to make sure that youths, who constitute the bulk of the country’s population, actively participate in the economy.

An environment that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation should be created to accommodate them.

The challenge is not only to reopen closed industries, but to create new ones as the Fourth Industrial Revolution dictates.

Our youths, therefore, should be more than prepared to take up the role of pioneering new entrepreneurial frontiers.

The Diaspora also have a key role to play as they have been exposed to technologies and systems, some of which can work in our circumstances.

The intelligence and knowhow can be an invaluable component of our aspirations as a nation.

It is a major ingredient if the country is to rapidly develop.

Also, innovative solutions to circumvent the present sanctions plaguing the country.

In an environment where there are difficulties in accessing development finance from international finance institutions, foreign direct investment can prove quite handy.

All that is needed is to create an environment where capital feels comfortable.

What is often lost to many is the fact that it is not foreign investors only that have to play a role to develop Zimbabwe, but local investors are crucial to in giving an indication that the environment is now accommodative to whosoever wants to start a business.

So, our laws must also have this special group in mind.

The ability of emerging economies such as China and Russia to continue growing at better-than-expected rates, even though facing headwinds from punitive tariffs and sanctions, is instructive of how an efficient system can spur economic growth.

The World Bank in 2013 declared Russia a high-income country and presently it is considered the sixth-largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity.

China continues on a growth trajectory and is now competing with the United States to become the world’s biggest economy.

A June 2017 report by McKinsey titled “Dance of the Lions and Dragons” indicated that China was now Africa’s biggest economic partner.

The volume of trade between Africa and China trade rose from $13 billion in 2001 to $188 billion in 2015.

Suffice to say, the world is now full of potential trading partners.

As Deng Xiaoping, the father of China’s economic miracle, once said, it doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice. We have to keep our options open. The major thrust of the new Government should be industrialisation and industrial development.

Companies need to be modernised and retooled to create competitiveness and efficiencies.

It simply means production processes should be mechanised and new production methods introduced.

Already, Government has indicated that the country’s economic growth will be predicated on agriculture and mining.

Command Agriculture has put the country on the path of food self-sufficiency, increased rural incomes and better living standards.

Agriculture’s influence, as a sector which supplies 60 percent of raw materials to industry and employs more than 70 percent, is pervasive.

It means there is need for more agro-technology and agro-processing.

Put simply, food security guarantees development.

The ball is now squarely in our court as Zimbabweans to ensure that we enhance the agricultural value chain.

However small the part we play, we should all contribute to the development of our country.

We either sink or swim together.