By Vince Musewe The modernisation and industrialisation of provincial economies (MIPE) is meant to create inclusive growth, local employment opportunities, eradication of poverty and ensuring that provincial economies are the ultimate beneficiaries of their factor endowments.
If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there (Alice in Wonderland). For me, the wealth of Zimbabwe is hidden in our provinces and the sad reality is that first, we do not have a solid plan on how we position each of our provinces to focus on their factor endowments and second, we actually do not know the extent of the key assets which we have, be it land, minerals, culture or human capital in each province. As a result, we have been unable to unlock their potential. It is, therefore, urgent and critical that our provinces begin to take full responsibility of their own developmental objectives given their unique factor endowments, socio-economic needs, population profiles and geography.
In my opinion, every province needs to develop a comprehensive developmental plan which looks at key sectors and how each sector is going to be developed over the next five to 20 years, including what human and financial resources will be required. Core to this plan must be industrialisation through value addition and beneficiation. When we industrialise we use our primary products to produce or manufacture processed or finished goods and we create local wealth and entrepreneurs, higher income and sustainable jobs and thus reduce poverty while reducing overdependence on imports.
Agricultural and mineral resources in each province must be fully exploited to the benefit of locals. The allocation of land assets, for example, must also prioritise local ownership. So should the issue of mineral claims and rights. We must stop extraction of wealth from our provinces without locals benefiting. Tourism is also a quick win sector in most of our provinces and so the marketing of tourism assets including cultural tourism must not be out-sourced to Harare.
Critical to achieving the above are the appropriate and empowered governance structures which must facilitate. I propose that each province has an economic planning and development capability that is properly capacitated and well-resourced. Its responsibility will be to come up with and ensure the implementation of a provincial strategic developmental blueprint while also being responsible for the annual provincial budget. The idea that the centre has all the wisdom and allocates resources as it sees fit is fraught with bias, blind spots and inherent inefficiencies.
Provincial economies should feed the centre not the other way round. This requires strong visionary leadership at provincial level. In my view, even the national annual budget should not be compiled in Harare, but merely consolidated there. The national budget must be a consolidation of provincial budgets. This of course requires a complete paradigm shift.
Each province must have job creation strategies. Creating local jobs boosts local economic activity and local disposable incomes and further creates downstream opportunities, resulting in inclusive growth. Many a time our provinces award local contracts or source goods from elsewhere, thus limiting local economic growth opportunities. This also includes big businesses which continue to starve provincial economies of opportunities. Local empowerment in all sectors must be a deliberate provincial policy and must be monitored and measured regularly.
Now all this will be ineffective unless each province is in a position to attract the necessary financial resources and not solely depend on the largesse of national government. Every province should have its own “one-stop investment centre” where potential investors can engage local actors. This will require building or recruiting a local skills base and having the administrative capacity to deal with investors at provincial level. Investors must be continually encouraged to partner with locals.
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Key to this will be the ability of each province to effectively market and promote its opportunities to potential investors, be they local or foreign. A marketing and promotion strategy will have to be in place for each province and be driven to promote local economic development and investment. This will reduce the cost and ease of dong business.
Added to this, all public institutions must change their culture and behaviour to improve on turn-around times. The processing of documentation, approval of projects and licences must be benchmarked and continuously improved upon at local level. For example, the issue of passports, identification documents, birth and death certificates, tax certificates including all key documentation must be done at provincial level. This will require use of information communication technologies by well-trained and competent civil servants. Training and capacity building will, therefore, be key.
Having said this, nothing will come out of all this unless each province is able to attract its own developmental and investment capital. Provincial developmental and industrialisation venture funds are critical. This will require provinces to go out there and attract own investors. Provinces must compete for investment. This will require provinces to package themselves as viable investment destinations to attract private capital. This will also require local fund management, deal structuring and investment capacities.
The private business sector and entrepreneurs within each province, which includes large and small business, will have a central role to play to achieve provincial developmental objectives. The various business associations and chambers at provincial level must, therefore, be self-organised and autonomous to exploit new opportunities without the need to continually refer elsewhere.
A partnership between provincial governments and the private sector is important so that all stakeholders work towards collective goals for localised social and economic development.
In my opinion, it is very critical that each province must have a clear poverty alleviation strategy which is unique and tailor-made to meet its needs.
We have, in the past, left the issue of poverty and food security to development partners and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or to national government. The extent of poverty and lack must be a well-known and monitored statistic at district level in order to measure progress. Engagement with NGOs is critical and a joint poverty alleviation strategy will be key.
Access to world-class education and health also needs to be localised. We must see major hospitals being established in every province while educational institutions must also be available at local level. To date, we have done well with universities but we need more learning and research institutions in each province.
Developmental research, innovation hubs, incubators, technical colleges are critical ingredients of future growth. Educational institutions must also be involved in developmental and industrialisation initiatives at provincial level. In all this, the promotion of youth and women as key drivers of provincial economies is vital.
We need organised youth and women groups in every province and they must take responsibility for their own economic emancipation and not wait for Harare to determine progress. Access to information and capital will be key. The national youth policy must be implemented at provincial level.
Above all, provincial visionary leadership will be the determining factor. Without good effective leadership driven by a passion for development, we will continue to talk about possibilities and potential without results on the ground.
- Vince Musewe is an economist. He writes here in his personal capacity.
