So, Mr. Speaker Sir, the business competitiveness commission that we must actually use is the Anti-corruption Commission. I want to urge Members of this august House to do everything they can to ensure that the Anti-corruption Commission of Zimbabwe is empowered financially and politically as well to be able to do its work because it will not help and will be really wasting time in long and in short.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I also want to add to another resource that this country has. Business competitiveness is an economic aspect and to set up a Commission again as I said, to be told common sense that you need to reduce the cost of doing business, the biggest cost drivers as my colleagues have said, the cost of infrastructure and the dilapidation of the road and rail networks – just yesterday we were told that goods trains on our tracks are travelling at the very scandalous speed of 10km per hour, I think it was the Transport Committee, outside the normal 60km per hour because the tracks and signal are so worn out.
Time is money Mr. Speaker Sir. So clearly, a train that tries to transport goods at 10kms per hour is going to cost more to the business owner who is trying to transport goods. This is common sense Mr. Speaker Sir and this Parliament produces report after report like that report of the Transport Committee. I would urge the Hon. Minister that instead of appointing this commission, to take all those Portfolio Committee reports that are presented in this august House and the recommendations seriously. If he implements just 10% of those recommendations, he will indeed see that the business competitiveness has indeed increased and not appoint this executive commission.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to point to another resource that the Hon. Minister should instead direct his good intentions to because this is common sense. We have economics students and graduates in this economy, even those who are studying economics can tell the Hon. Minister that Zimbabwe is not short of minds and knowledge of those things that we already know. He can even utilise for free, there is a 98% unemployment rate in this country; those graduates of economics who are roaming the streets and selling tomatoes can give the Hon. Minister that information he already has, but he might want to hear from other people.
So Hon. Minister, through you Mr. Speaker Sir, this Commission is a bad idea. It is a waste of his precious ministerial time, Parliament time as well as tax payers’ money. Finally, the issue of business competitiveness, Hon. Mpariwa debated about the issue of timing. It is no secret that the politics of this country are the biggest risk factor in this country. Right now, we are in February 2017 and in less than 12 months; our country will be locked in another epic electoral battle.
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