Harare, Zimbabwe(News of the South)-Zimbabwe needs to reinvest its income and grow the economy instead of expending much of its budget on salaries and other expenditures, a senior government official has said.
Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said this whilst addressing a group of Diasporan Zimbabwean business people in London on Friday.
Mzembi, who is in the running for the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) presidency, said the absence of strict and basic economic fundamentals mean that the Zimbabwean economy will continue contracting.
Government currently spends over 90% of revenue on salaries in a scenario that has stunted any room for growth annually leaving the state with budget deficits which are currently pegged at over $400 million.
“When the Minister of Finance sees the potential for say $4billion and consumes it immediately you cannot grow (the economy) that’s why instead of growing we are contracting”.
“That’s the mischief of our whole budget framework, the mischief of the Zimbabwean economy”, he said.
Mzembi added that the same syndrome of consuming without investing was also rampant across the continent.
“As a continent we get $60billion and yet we through illicit outflows we lose $80 billion. We are even losing more than what we are getting. It must multiply, only when it multiplies can you begin to enjoy it”.
Mzembi urged the business people to strategically place themselves for growth in line with Africa’s Agenda 63, which documents the economic vision for the continent going forward and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
Africa requires more than $600 billion for the operationalization of the 17 SDG’s yet currently receives a mere $60 billion for developmental funding leaving a gaping hole of over $500 billion.
The Minister urged the business people to fill that gap through private enterprise.
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