By Godfrey Tembo
Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South)-Zimbabwe lacks an enabling environment to be able to escape the current economic quagmire according an economic analyst in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC)
Professor Ashok Chakravarti, a developing economist and currently the Country Coach, Ease of Doing Business said many of the country initiatives are being impended by the absence of an enabling environment.
Speaking at a Swedish Open Forum event on How to Green Zimbabwe, Chakravarti said most of the approaches taken by authorities were not consistent with the desired aim.
“Recently the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) banned incandescent bulbs which cost 50 cents from China and on the other hand the LED’s are $3-$4”
“By regulating you can force people but the much better will be to incentivize the use but unfortunately we don’t have that”
He also cited the example of the Environmental Management Agency (EMA).
“We have EMA that runs around in uniform like the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and imposes fines based on how pollution is assessed”
“We don’t seem to have the right approach to dealing with things. Unless we change our whole approach at a national level, particularly our environmental laws this is not going to see the creation of an enabling environment”, he said.
Chakravarti stated that the country’s general approach to climate change issues had been informed by the European Union (EU) and that would not lead to much progress.
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