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Boost production to beat inflation IF ever there was any doubt that Zimbabwe had turned the corner and was on the way to full revival of its economy, such doubts must have dissipated following the presentation of the monetary policy review on Thursday.There was confirmation that Zimbabwe now has a monetary and fiscal policy that is pursuant of the vision that has been enunciated by the Head of State and is being pursued vigorously by the Govern-ment. President Mugabe’s ten-point plan of agriculture-based economic development underpinned by the land and agrarian reform programme remains the template for any success the country may hope to achieve. That vision has always been clear but faced serious opposition from economic saboteurs who, for political reasons, did not want it to succeed. There was a sustained campaign to create doubt in the minds of the people that the whole thing was doomed to fail. In order to convince the people these elements went on a criminal orgy of looting the country’s resources and causing unbearable suffering to the people. But the last four months have unmasked the real devil and the people are not confused anymore. There is a sense of optimism pervading society. People believe in the turnaround efforts and are willing to rally behind the torchbearers. What gives them hope is the results they are seeing on the ground. They can see the benefits of the land reform programme. They can also see the benefits of the anti-corruption drive. And to cap it all the new monetary policy is working. The fight against inflation is certainly paying dividends as the rate has fallen to 583 percent on a downward spiral that could take it to 200 percent or less by year-end. That will certainly translate into good news for the people. More measures are being taken to speed up the decline in the rate of inflation. One of these, which is a sure winner, is the drive to increase production. As Dr Gideon Gono noted in his review, increased production of goods and services in the economy is an effective vehicle through which inflationary pressures can be reduced. To encourage production, Dr Gono announced that productive sector support would not come to an end but would be extended even further. In the first three months of the year $1,42 trillion was disbursed for this purpose, with the biggest beneficiary being the manufacturing sector which got $683,7 billion, followed by agriculture at $522,7 billion. Instead of continuing to pump new money into the sector, which could be inflationary, a revolving fund has been created and capped at $1,5 trillion. This means new projects will largely be financed from the repayments into the fund. Now with cheap funds available there is no excuse for agriculture, industry and commerce to fail to increase production. What we expect to see now is that most of the inefficiencies in the economy should begin to fall by the wayside. There are incentives all over for people to produce. Exporters have even greater incentives, which include a favourable forex rate of $5 200. Some of the inefficiencies in the economy were being caused by the inability of critical institutions to provide the necessary support to industry and commerce. Wankie Colliery was one of them, which, together with the NRZ, could not provide coal for the tobacco sector to cure the golden crop. But these two companies now have access to cheap money of $15 billion and $20 billion respectively. What we expect to see are quick turnarounds by these institutions and we are glad that as a condition of accessing the money, they have to satisfy the monetary authorities that they indeed have workable plans to perform to expectations and that there is accountability in their operations. No money will be allowed to go down the drain anymore. We can trust the new leaders at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to perform their role of providing the necessary monetary direction and policing. On our part as Zimbabweans we need to commit ourselves to producing — and that means working hard. Elsewhere in this issue we carry a report on comments made by the Minister of State for Policy Implementation, Cde Webster Shamu, who says he has completed a report on the extent to which Government policies are being implemented by ministries. He says the report, to be presented to the President, will show that there are certain Government policies which have not been implemented. That report is going to be a good starting point for the Government to ensure that everyone is pulling their weight behind the turnaround programme. Civil servants are known for their tendency to sit on projects if they don’t agree with certain policies. In some cases they are downright mischievous and will play games with critical projects or allow their corrupt practices to stifle progress. But the moment they know that they are being watched and that every policy will be followed up to ensure implementation, then we will begin to see some discipline coming in. The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
