The flamboyant Victorian British Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, once noted that; “There can be economy, only where there is efficiency”.
Zimbabwe’s economy has been full of inefficiencies for far too long. Waste in the economy, has led to want amongst the people. Our people deserve better. And as the Minister of Finance, I have a duty to set things right.
The Government’s Transitional Stabilisation Programme is at the heart of our reform programme. It outlines the State Enterprise Reform initiative as one of the most important areas to ensure sustainable economic growth and improved service delivery.
At the core of this restructuring initiative is what to do with our under-performing parastatals? On the one hand, we believe that our natural resources and large industries are Zimbabwean, and must remain in the hands of Zimbabweans.
Yet on the other hand, with the bureaucracies and inefficiencies of Government, including our own, the experience and qualifications of private sector investors and managers, would guarantee significant improvements in both production and profits.
It is no wonder, former United States president Harry Truman once quipped that he would like someone to find him a one-handed economist!
However, economists all agree, that by making these State-run industries efficient, all Zimbabweans will profit. We will take the astronomical burden and their associated costs off the shoulders of Government. And with costs cut, these moves will increase revenues from both the sale of the companies themselves and in the long run, the increased tax revenues from the newly-profitable ventures.
