The ManicaPost
Tafara Shumba Post Correspondent
It is now a year after President Mugabe enunciated a Ten Point plan designed to take the economy out of the woods and sustaining economic growth, particularly the creation of employment.
| Zimbabwe is very good at coming up with very decent economic plans which, however, more often go into the drain due to the dearth of follow-ups and monitoring mechanisms. The implementing arms of the executive economic policies and plans have grown to realize that they can rest on their laurels and still get away with it. |
If the Ten Point plan had been taken as seriously as President Mugabe took it, this economy could have taken some giant strides towards resuscitation. The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) must periodically review the policies that the President comes up with. The progress reports should be in the public domain so that people, who are the stockholders, are conscious of who did what and who did not do what.
Although the Ten Point plan is mainly anchored on agriculture, there is at least one point in the plan for every parastatal and government enterprise in the varied economic sectors. The parastatals and Government enterprise or rather every player involved in the economic recovery agenda, should dedicate their focus on such points that have to do with their line of business.
OPC would do well if it summons the Chief Executive Officers of all the Government enterprises and get an update of their progress in respect of the Ten Point plan implementation. There is need of an incessant monitoring to make sure that all the players pull with the same gravity. The plan was viciously mauled when it was introduced; with detractors suggesting it was just one of those plans whose live ends on the paper.
The Ten Point plan is not a sophisticated document which needs technocrats to operationalise it. It is just a simplified version of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset). The OPC should brook no excuse that attempts to justify poor performance and inadequacies. It’s known that there are debilitating sanctions working at cross purpose with the economic revival agenda but this is exactly what the appointing authorities factored when they appointed these CEOs.
The economic environment does not need a business as usual approach. Certainly there are sanctions and other impediments in the economic environment but Zimbabwe is in need of amadhodha sibili, managers who can defy the odds and show the nation their economic contributions that are commensurate with the generous packs they go home with. The dream of resurrecting the economy will remain in the pipe if CEOs continued to be paid just for appearing at work stations not for producing results. Some of these CEOs are being paid more than their companies’ monthly takings. It is high time performance based remunerations are taken on board.
In his Ten Point plan, President Mugabe was not lost to the harsh economic environment currently weakening efforts to revive the economy. He therefore encouraged the promotion of joint ventures and public- private partnerships to boost the role and performance of state owned companies. We need to see how many joint ventures each state owned company has gone into since the Ten Point plan was launched.
In both the developed and developing countries, there is a renewed interest in the Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) because of the pervasive financial crisis. State owned companies should seize the opportunities that come along with these PPPs. PPPs must be taken as an alternative additional source of funding to meet the funding gap. These partnerships ensure high quality and timely provision of public services.
Some of the parastatals have done fairly well in the implementation of the noble Ten Point plan. One such entity that deserves an honourable mention is the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA). ARDA, under the stewardship of its board Chairman Mr Basil Nyabadza and his executive team have not disappointed. If they maintain the current momentum, certainly Zimbabwe will become the regional bread basket again.
ARDA has tapped into the expertise and experience of the private sector to revive its estates. It has entered into a number of partnerships with both local and international private players in its agro-business projects. For instance, it has partnered with Macdom and Rating Investment to form Green Fuel, the country’s only ethanol producer. Among the 21 farms that ARDA owns, the $600 million ethanol project is the most lucrative and viable venture at the moment.
ARDA realized that they have the resources in the form of land and infrastructure such as dams and irrigation. They, however, have capital challenges, a gap which they made private investors to fill. They have also gone into partnership with Schwepes Beverages to form Zangrida processing plants in Norton and Esgodini. The partnership is paying off as the tomato and fruit processing company is already exporting tomato pastry to Namibia where it is used in the canning of luckystar fish.
ARDA has also ventured into partnership with Trek Petroleum to boost its cattle ranching projects in Matebeleland South and the production of wheat and soya beans.
Mr Nyabadza revealed in a recent interview that ARDA was in advanced negotiations with some Germany investors for a $50 million venture in maize production.
Other parastatals must take a leaf from ARDA. The OPC must have periodical capacity development seminars where achievers give underachievers some recipes for achievement. It’s neither a crime nor an act of selling-out to partner moneyed whites. Just like ARDA, you remain the landlord in joint ventures that result in a 50-50 win.
