Funding Zimbabwe's Economic Revival
History should only serve to remind us where we have come from but should never limit what we can become.
I notice that I could have left some of my judicious readers on the lurch last week with my suggestions with regard to funding agriculture revival and therefore economic revival through the issue of internationally backed long term bonds. Let me therefore take this opportunity to further explain how this could work and what the likely economic impact could be.
Please note that this is "a view" and there could be other solutions out there, but we must at least start the conversation. Let me also hasten to say that the ideas herein are as a result of the conversations I continue to have with other progressive Zimbabweans and are therefore not mine alone.
Zimbabwe needs patient and friendly long term investment capital. That is not going to happen in the medium term if our political situation remains as it is and potential investors continue to load their decisions with country risk. However, notwithstanding, we can lift ourselves by the boot straps by realising that we have an incredible asset that has very little value because no one has title to it; that asset is our vast arable and fertile land that lies hugely underutilised, mostly misused or tragically unused; courtesy of ZANU(PF)'s fast track land resettlement fiasco. We cannot sustain this situation any longer.
The overall strategy for accelerating agrarian transformation as the foundation for sustainable economic development in Zimbabwe requires that we deal with; land conflict dispute resolution; land valuation and compensation; a land audit; security of land tenure on all rural properties; best practice land administration; optimum land use planning and productivity; and an up to date land survey and registration exercise.