KM Financial Solutions chief executive Kenias Mafukidze said the
meeting was designed to build a better working relationship between the
newly-formed inclusive Government and the business community.
Among issues to be tackled will be the liberalisation of the economy,
dollarisation and funding challenges faced by the business community.
Mafukidze said the event would provide a forum for business leaders to
digest the full impact of the 2009 National Budget and the Monetary
Policy Statement.
The recent developments on the business and socio-political front need
serious consideration hence the need to have an event of this nature.
Zimbabwe is gravitating back into the global economic scene through
dollarisation and liberalisation. Businesses need to prepare for this
phase, said Mafukidze.
It is hopeful that the event will encourage the consummation of deals
with a number of international financiers who had pledged to invest in
the country.
Local industry can't compete
HARARE – Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) chairman,
Tafadzwa Musarara has said that while the government's decision to
suspend import duty on selected basic commodities had brought relief to
consumers in the interim, it was important for policy makers to
implement measures that would ensure the resurgence of local industries
to spur economic growth.
Local industries were finding it difficult to compete with imports
because of higher production costs brought about by a number of factors.
Suffocating local producers would in the long run hinder economic
revival efforts with precedent showing that successful economies the
world over were anchored on high local production.
While providing immediate relief to consumers, the unrestricted
importation of finished basic commodities has had a negative impact on
local manufacturers whose production costs are not competitive because
of variables beyond their control. For example, standing legislation
forces local millers to import high quality grain than GMO varieties
used by foreign millers. Imported brands are made of low cost and
heavily refined GMO grain and are being sold at an average price of
US$5 per 12,5kg bag. We are landing 10kg of organic maize at US$4 and
our selling price after factoring all production and ancillary
variables is over US$6,50. Clearly we cannot compete under such
circumstances and these are some of the things that should be looked
into, said Musarara.
Cheap meat products from South Africa, Brazil and Uruguay, where
stock-fed prices were cheaper, have also affected local industries.
Farmers make threats
BULAWAYO – Farmers in Matabeleland are have threatened not to deliver
their harvest to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) but will instead sell
directly to millers in protest over alleged corrupt activities at the
parastatal.
Farmers have said they lost confidence in the GMB's ability to
distribute grain transparently following a spate of allegations of
misconduct.Â
This season we are expecting a much improved yield compared to the one
we had last year and because of the corruption at GMB which saw some
officials channelling maize to the black market while most people were
facing starvation, we are not going to sell our harvest to them. We
want them (GMB) to come to us and beg because we feel it's high time we
generate some income through the sale of our crops in foreign currency
in an open market,'' said WFA Bulawayo provincial chairperson, Morage
Dube.
Support local companies
HARARE – Zimbabwean companies have been urged to aggressively implement
strategies to boost production to ensure their survival when Economic
Partnership Agreements come into force in 2013.
Africa Institute for Policy Analysis and Development director, Dr
Medicine Masiiwa said failure to boost production could turn potential
opportunities into threats for the local companies.
"The opening up of markets is going to subject local companies to
competition from EU products but then the question is will we be in a
position to compete? What is needed is massive support for local
companies in terms of finance, new skills and technology as well as
good infrastructure so that come 2013 we will be able to compete. If
that does not happen, then we are going to face a threat from the
European Union," said Masiiwa.
Air Zimbabwe hopeful
HARARE – National airline Air Zimbabwe is set to re-open regional
routes as it pins its hopes on the formation of the historic
all-inclusive government.
The company's chief executive officer, Peter Chikumba, believes that
the new political dispensation will open new markets that will
necessitate the re-opening of such routes as Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia
and Tanzania.
"Once the economy recovers, we will be opening some flights that we had
suspended. We hope the new political order will bring in new
opportunities," said Chikumba.
Skepticism over voucher system
HARARE – Government has maintained that civil servants will be
remunerated through the voucher system over and above salaries in local
currency.
Authorities said the vouchers will be in five FX units (each worth
US$20) that will be securitised, redeemable, tradable and can be cashed.
Put simply, a recipient of these instruments can readily change them
for cash at specially designated shopping centres that are
participating in the arrangement. However, the names of the shops in
this scheme have not yet been made public.
There has been mounting skepticism from some civic leaders who have
interpreted the move as an attempt to covertly print foreign currency
and an inconvenient payment method.
Analysts last week said although the voucher system was not the
government's preferred payment method, it is the most practicable under
the current circumstances.
It is utmost critical that the vouchers that will be issued by
Government gain the confidence of both the recipients and the retailers
who will be part to the scheme, and in this regard there is need to
ensure that these instruments are easily tradable and convertible. Also
retailers that will volunteer and be selected in the programme have to
be generating sound cash flow so that they are able to anticipate and
seamlessly guarantee convenient transactions,'' said a research analyst
with a local financial institution. Any hiccups might put the system
into disarray.
Cholera deaths tripled in January
JOHANNESBURG – The number of Zimbabweans who died due to the Cholera
epidemic, which is still ravaging the rural areas, more than tripled
during the last two weeks of January, an international aid agency has
reported.
Matthew Cochrane, a spokesperson for the Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, told the media in Johannesburg that about 400 Zimbabweans
succumbed to Cholera nationwide, during the last two weeks of January,
as under-resourced local health facilities failed to compliment the
work being done by the international community.
The death figures tripled during that period, especially in the rural
areas, where access to health care is still a challenge to most
people,' said Cochrane. We had the nationwide death toll reaching 400
people, compared to about 100 during the previous month.
He said that, although there has been a slight improvement in the
treatment of the disease in both the capital Harare and the
Zimbabwe-South Africa border town of Beitbridge, the less than 1 per
cent decrease in the number of deaths therein was still not
satisfactory.
The international community, including the Red Cross, is doing
everything to stop both the spread and effects of the disease, but
because all the help has to come from outside, as Zimbabwe is going
through an economic meltdown, there are still some challenges that we
are facing.
While distancing himself from Zimbabwean politics, Cochrane was
optimistic that the government of national unity, formed by President
Robert Mugabe's Zanu (PF) and the MDC last week, would help solve the
humanitarian crisis in the country.
Residents say no to forex charges
HARARE – The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) has expressed
concern over reports of residents in high density areas who are being
forced to pay rates in foreign currency.Â
Residents have complained that the City of Harare is already affecting
the forex charges that were outlined in the budget that is still yet to
be announced. Moreover, residents were shocked to discover that the
City of Harare actually intends to announce the budget which was
drafted without even consulting residents.
The then defacto Acting Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa, said
that residents in high density areas would have the option of paying
their rates in ZW$ and yet Council is said to be rejecting the local
currency.