The Sunday Mail
Chris Chenga Open Economy —
An economic zone refers to designated areas with unique economic regulations that differ from other areas in the same country. These regulations tend to contain measures that are conducive to promoting investment and economic activity in deliberate products or industry.
The notion of economic zones inherently appreciates the geographical value of respective regions, aligned with the conscious recognition of the kind of regulatory environment these regions require to competitively promote specific products or industry. Zimbabwe is marked out into 10 provinces, and a national competitive advantage is the economic potential found in all these provinces.
As such, it is disconcerting when a countrywide drive would inform an observer on the economic depression that many provinces and regions are currently experiencing. It would be advised for us to pay attention to the stunted development of what were designated as “growth points” decades ago.
As the generic reference implies, these were centres or hubs primed for socio-economic growth. Many remain undeveloped and devoid of the economic activity once hoped for. Similarly, urban metropolises have suffered economic slowdown. What should be vibrant and bustling cities have slowed into areas of concentrated dwelling without much economic activity defining the municipal structures of typical urban socio-economic construction.
Perhaps one can proffer three suggestions on how to elevate our economy along a geographic narrative. Firstly, as alluded to earlier, what is required to stimulate these regions is an assessment on the most suitable product or industry in these geographical settings. Consider that agriculture and mining, the most significant sectors in our economy, are inseparable from the geographic potential of the country.
Certain crops inherently find differing regions conducive for cultivation. Interestingly, the first modern industry in Zimbabwe was in fact conceived from the discovery that the Virginia tobacco leaf was best suited for the central plains of our country much more than it was in any other location in the entire Southern African region.
Likewise, identified minerals are easily sketched across the country such as the Great Dyke. Logically, our economic strategy for the two biggest sectors in Zimbabwe is geographically set. It is prudent then to simply follow this natural geographic outline and design our socio-economic regulatory and business infrastructure in obedience to geography.
Secondly, a cultural shift is required amongst Zimbabweans, particularly in terms of how we perceive urban versus rural socio-economic potential.
For both career and business hopefuls, huge urban cities, especially Harare, are not the only place to venture in pursuit of success.
I am tempted to suggest that this notion was engrained in pre-independence and an early 1980s spirit where educated or entrepreneurial black people perceived major cities as the only places that offered fortune and professional affirmation. Indeed, this is also the driving force behind developing world urbanisation.
This notion is largely misguided, and our perceptions of socio-economic mobility must be readjusted. Consider that in the developed world, most successful professionals and entrepreneurs may actually be located in mid-size urban cities or rural communities.
This is contrary to the aforementioned Zimbabwean and developing world spirit driving urbanisation. Most of Germany’s world-renowned SMEs, commonly referred to as “Mittelstand”, are based in mid-size cities or rural communities.
These Mittelstand are world beaters in terms of market share and product development (they are export-oriented), with most of them being enterprises founded by or employing the largest share of wealth owners in Germany.
This is similar trend in the United States where most millionaires, in California for instance, do not work or reside in major metropolises like Los Angeles. Instead, they make their living in mid-size or rural communities. The urbanisation yearn retained in Zimbabwe is not necessarily factually grounded.
We need a cultural shift in perception of our urban versus rural potential. As Zimbabwe is largely an agriculture and mining-driven economy, if those sectors get going, it means that with agricultural or mining hubs in rural communities, there is ample potential for entrepreneurship or professionalism in offering banking and finance, real estate development, information technology, medical practice, educational infrastructure, and many other commercially viable services.
If ranching, sugar estates and mining take off in Masvingo province, then is it not conceivable that many entrepreneurs and professionals offering the aforementioned services stand the chance to make it big?
In terms of dwelling and recreation, perhaps the scenic hills in Zaka can be a similarly affluent suburb like Santa Barbara in California, Monaco in France, or Tuscany in Italy.
Moreover, investment in social infrastructure can then be driven by wealthy classes and not the meagre earnings of the subsistence agrarian populous who we perceive as “the last to make it to the big cities”.
Perhaps then all provinces can have well-financed sports teams and stadia, better resourced educational institutions, shopping malls, and all other developmental infrastructure that create living standards comparable to big cities. As Zimbabweans, we need a cultural shift from the entrenched assumption that wealth-creation is the promise of big cities and metropolises.
It is only when we achieve this cultural shift will our best entrepreneurial and professional minds commit to the value chain alignment and competitive industrialisation that is missing in our countryside, leaving low development and investment in these regions. The third suggestion would be one of governance improvement and competitiveness.
In China, economic zones were not only used for their economic potential, but also their political and governance appraisal potential. What decentralised governance structures offer is the opportunity to assess innovative and differentiated means of governance. Municipalities can try out differentiated regulatory structures that can be useful for comparative analyses.
Such decentralised governance aids countries to develop their institutional frameworks towards efficiency and responsiveness to constituent needs; household or enterprise.
