Business / Economy
Zimbabwe should be investing 6% of GDP in capital formation
24 May 2017 at 08:26hrs | Views
A political analyst Vince Musewe has challenged the Zimbabwean authorities to at least invest 6% of gross domestic product in capital formation to bring the nation out of its current economic quagmire.
He said according to international research developing countries such as Zimbabwe should be investing at least 6% of GDP in capital formation.
"We are far away from this figure as the economy collapses due to de-industrialisation. The African Development Bank has identified for us what needs to happen as follows: Power: we need the full rehabilitation of the national power grid and by 2020 addition of new generation capacity required to sustain strong economic growth; Roads: Our national road network has not been maintained for close to 15 years and Harare alone needs $300 million to repair its roads," he said.
"Railways: We need the rehabilitation of our railways network and restructuring of the industry through the creation of a new public entity that will own, maintain, and manage the basic track infrastructure. The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) must be transformed to a privatized railways services company which then awards of concessions for freight and passenger services on the entire rail network."
He said in Civil Aviation: the nation must upgrade the status of air traffic communications and safety in Zimbabwe to a standard consistent with the requirements of the ICAO.
"We must award of concessions for the upgrade our airports to promote the growth of tourism. We will also need to rehabilitate and upgrade of the remaining nine airports managed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ); Water storage and transport: Substantial investment in storage and transport of water must be made to meet increased demand from agriculture industry and households," he said.
"In Water Supply and Sanitation: Zimbabwe must Rehabilitate the existing water supply and sanitation infrastructure and improvement of services in the now overpopulated urban and poor rural areas to ensure that the MDG goals for the sector are met no later than 2020; In ICT: We must develop of a national communications grid for ICT based on a fibre optic network linked to the submarine cables now in place along the eastern seaboard of Africa. The grid would lay the foundations for a major expansion in access to reliable communications at reasonable cost for a majority of Zimbabweans, the business community, government and civil society."
Musewe said in order to implement the above institutional and regulatory reform will be key.
"This, according to the bank, includes measures to streamline the regulation of basic infrastructure services, promote private investment in infrastructure assets and services, as well as training and other capacity building measures to expand the skills required within the public sector for continued effective oversight and management of the basic infrastructure of the country," he said.
He said according to international research developing countries such as Zimbabwe should be investing at least 6% of GDP in capital formation.
"We are far away from this figure as the economy collapses due to de-industrialisation. The African Development Bank has identified for us what needs to happen as follows: Power: we need the full rehabilitation of the national power grid and by 2020 addition of new generation capacity required to sustain strong economic growth; Roads: Our national road network has not been maintained for close to 15 years and Harare alone needs $300 million to repair its roads," he said.
"Railways: We need the rehabilitation of our railways network and restructuring of the industry through the creation of a new public entity that will own, maintain, and manage the basic track infrastructure. The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) must be transformed to a privatized railways services company which then awards of concessions for freight and passenger services on the entire rail network."
He said in Civil Aviation: the nation must upgrade the status of air traffic communications and safety in Zimbabwe to a standard consistent with the requirements of the ICAO.
"We must award of concessions for the upgrade our airports to promote the growth of tourism. We will also need to rehabilitate and upgrade of the remaining nine airports managed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ); Water storage and transport: Substantial investment in storage and transport of water must be made to meet increased demand from agriculture industry and households," he said.
"In Water Supply and Sanitation: Zimbabwe must Rehabilitate the existing water supply and sanitation infrastructure and improvement of services in the now overpopulated urban and poor rural areas to ensure that the MDG goals for the sector are met no later than 2020; In ICT: We must develop of a national communications grid for ICT based on a fibre optic network linked to the submarine cables now in place along the eastern seaboard of Africa. The grid would lay the foundations for a major expansion in access to reliable communications at reasonable cost for a majority of Zimbabweans, the business community, government and civil society."
Musewe said in order to implement the above institutional and regulatory reform will be key.
"This, according to the bank, includes measures to streamline the regulation of basic infrastructure services, promote private investment in infrastructure assets and services, as well as training and other capacity building measures to expand the skills required within the public sector for continued effective oversight and management of the basic infrastructure of the country," he said.
Source - Byo24News
