HON. DR. MASHAKADA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I will ask you a rhetorical question. I am talking about our transformation agenda and I am now sharing with you what I call transformation markers – what should happen to change the path of this economy. Mr. Speaker Sir, I will ask you a rhetorical question. Mr. Speaker with a GDP of $15 billion, why should we have a budget of $4 billion? What is happening to the rest of the wealth? It shows that we have the capacity to leap-frog from a $4 billion budget to a $20 billion budget. We have a capacity to leap-frog from a $15 billion economy to $100 billion economy if we introduce the right policies.
Mr. Speaker Sir, changing the structure of the economy is a structural issue which we must address in order to develop Zimbabwe and not simply stablise the situation. Mr. Speaker Sir, sorry I see that there are a lot of interruptions. I want to draw your attention to my presentation.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Sorry about that.
HON. DR. MASHAKADA: Mr. Speaker Sir, Zimbabwe is a great country and it has a potential. We must be a giant in terms of the economy. So, let us go back to addressing the structural fundamentals that we grow our economy from $15 billion, to $20 billion to $30 billion and create jobs along the way.
Mr. Speaker Sir, if you look at our GDP, across the 54 African countries, ours is only now higher – in the southern region than Malawi. We were the second largest economy after South Africa but now our GDP is just only higher than Malawi. Our GDP is only higher than the island economies like your Comoros, Seychelles, Madascar and so on. So, in the pecking order, we must reclaim our position – we need inclusive growth and that must benefit everybody and not just the elite.
HON. KASHIRI: On a point of order Mr. Speaker. The Hon. Member is giving us figures which are fictitious.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order. Please, read your Standing Orders. When you have what you think is the correct situation, you will stand up and be recognised and debate and dispute what has been said.
HON. DR. MASHAKADA: Mr. Speaker Sir, when we were doing the induction, you told us to research and I am only speaking out of the research that I have done. Also Mr. Speaker, my PHD is on comparative GDP and fiscal policy. So I am at home in this case, if you want to go through my thesis, it is there under Stellenbosch University and you will see some of these figures that I am quoting. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I was talking about growing the economy. Why do we need the growth of the economy? We need to grow jobs. If the economy is not growing, is stabilised, we cannot create employment. We cannot absorb the sea or army of school leavers. So, we need jobs to be created. How do we create these jobs? We need to reindustrialise to create the supply response, to increase productivity, increase investment in the manufacturing sector and create jobs. Open all the clothing industries, the textile industries, your ZISCO Steel and all former economic units that were closed to create employment. That goes beyond stabilisation. It is a structural matter.
Let us address our infrastructure, Mr. Speaker Sir. We need to spruce up our infrastructure whether it is roads, energy, water and sanitation or housing. One of the areas that can create jobs is the construction industry. It has got the potential to create millions of jobs. If you look at the skies of Harare, you do not see single crane. If you go to Bulawayo, you do not see a single crane and you cannot talk of stabilisation. You need an intervention to make sure that construction starts.
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