'Growth' At The Gates

The economy  is drastically slowing down. This short- term slow down is being compounded by election anxiety. Aid money and soft foreign loans, the country's main sources of funding, have been temporarily suspended pending elections.

Foreign financial markets are in chaos. Other developing countries are seeing investors flee local exchanges. This has caused instabilities and even riots in Brazil. The hard lesson is-you cannot depend on so called short term foreign investment.

Zimbabwe needs real, long-term,  foreign investment to finance working capital, technology and infrastructure. Unfortunately, the sort of investors eyeing Zimbabwe's resources are  for short term gain. They want high 'growth' Zim shares and not long term developmental commitment. Zimbabwe needs real growth in employment, sustainable resource use and local re-development.

Financial calamities in Europe, instability in developing markets and the threat of a US$70 Trillion derivatives market, all  indicate when E.S.A.P 2.0  is offered as a development strategy, this should be seen as garbage at the gates. E.S.A.P part 2 will not be the new 'developmental' program's name, but at its heart will be financial liberalization.