HARARE - Denmark says Zimbabwe’s economic blueprint, ZimAsset, is not practical and government needs to come up with concrete steps to revive the stuttering economy.
Erik Rasmussen, head of mission at the Royal Danish Embassy Harare office, said without action and policy consistency, ZimAsset might suffer a stillbirth.
“The problem with ZimAsset is that it is not really implementable in the way it has been presented. What is it you intend to do to achieve food security and economic growth? It would be very difficult to ensure sustainable and reliable food security in this country if you don’t address the land issue and that you don’t see it in ZimAsset,” he said.
He said while “no one can argue with the fact that there is a lot of valuable stuff in ZimAsset, the economic blueprint has to be taken to the next level”.
Rasmussen added that Zimbabwe would struggle to achieve meaningful economic growth as long as the private sector continues to operate in a harsh economic environment without practical government intervention.
This comes as the southern African nation is struggling to secure $27 billion to fund ambitious projects outlined in the five-year economic blueprint due to lack of funds.
The blueprint, which borrows from the ruling party Zanu PF’s election manifesto and previous national development programmes, identifies four major clusters, namely food security and nutrition, social services and poverty reduction, infrastructure and utilities and value addition and beneficiation.
It comes on the back of a cocktail of economic policies that have dismally failed to breathe life into the country’s economy.
These range from the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (Esap) to Zimbabwe Programme for Economic and Social Transformation (Zimprest) to the abandoned Medium Term Plan that was supposed to run until next year, among others.
Under ZimAsset, Zimbabwe targets to create 2,2 million jobs, unlock $1,8 trillion in idle mineral reserves and grow the economy by an average seven percent annually.
With the local economy only generating approximately $3,6 billion in annual revenue, ZimAsset was anchored on the mobilisation of $27 billion mostly from the emerging markets, mainly Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa.
However, Brazil has said it will not financially support Zimbabwe’s ZimAsset projects as the southern African nation is “too rich to beg for financial assistance”.
“As a rule, Brazil does not give any support to sovereign nations and we don’t give out hand-outs either,” its envoy to Zimbabwe, Marcia Maro da Silva, recently said.
“Usually, we find synergies and business opportunities where we can work with people on various projects. Zimbabwe is a rich country and does not need donations but investments. ZimAsset offers opportunities for Brazil to come and invest in infrastructure and other sectors but there is need for clarity on the country’s economic policies.” — Business Live