MUTARE– Mining sector leakages have been identified as a major impediment to Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in spite of overall positive performance by the mining sector, a renowned Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe economist Dr Prosper Chitambara has said.
By Donald Nyarota
Chitambara said Zimbabwe was failing to derive value from capital intensive mining investments due to lack of value addition and beneficiation.
He proposed the adoption of the African Mining Vision through deliberate policies which enhance upstream and downstream linkages in the mining sector value chain in order to extract full value from the mineral resources.
“We have basically failed to gain traction from mega deals and investments and we have pro poor inclusive growth despite good economic performance from the mining sector.
“Investment is targeting the mining sector which is capital intensive and fails to create employment opportunities. We also have a lot of smuggling because of these leakages, so we are not benefitting from this sector,” said Chitambara.
He added, “We need to mirror the African Mining Vision (AMV) and ensure there is value addition in the value mining value chain, also ensure that we set up robust sovereign wealth funds or investment vehicles to ensure sustainable pro poor inclusive growth.”
Chitambara said there should be focus on policies which promote the realization of social economic rights including education, health, water and sanitation, as well as employment creation to achieve sustainable development.
He lashed at African governments for mortgaging economic development without exhausting domestic resource mobilization opportunities.
“Zimbabwe must not be seized by achieving an Upper Middle Income Country status without addressing inherent inequalities caused by under employment, instead we should develop policies that support inclusive and sustainable development.
“Countries which achieve sustainable development place people at the centre of their development planning to enhance socio economic rights of their citizens.
“African governments however, have subcontracted their development to developed countries, but before a country develops it must look within itself,” he said.
