Mr. Speaker, we may differ in our political ideology and semantics but when it comes to the Zimbabwean nation, I think it is very critical to speak with one voice. Quite often, the Hon. Minister of Finance and Economic Planning has been appearing before the august House to say Hon. Members, citizens of Zimbabwe, let us speak positively about our country.
The reason why the international community is not very safe to invest in this country is because of the messages that we were posting to the international community and those messages were not important for this country. There were messages for political expediency but look at our situation now, we are all crying.
I think the political environment must be improved by Zimbabwean citizens, be it in the opposition or the ruling party. We need sanity in our politics, it is a necessity. I think he made a very important observation, we need sanity in our politics. We cannot go around the world selling out our country as what has been happening to the detriment of our economy and poor citizens of this country. This is one big mistake that our opposition has made to this country and I think they must regret that mistake.
Mr. Speaker Sir, be that as it may, I would also want to congratulate the Government of Zimbabwe; having realised that the illegal sanctions had played havoc to our economy, our Government did not just sit, it introduced ZIM ASSET. It is a blueprint by the Government.
The efforts in the ZIM ASSET is to make sure that we are the owners of our own resources so that at the end of the day, we can produce for the betterment of our economy. So, we need to congratulate the Government. The Government is making tireless efforts in making sure that we improve our economy which has been ravaged.
For example, Statutory Instrument, 64 of 2016 is to ensure that those products which we produce can find outside markets, then we are able to bring the US dollar that we want by way of restricting those products, it is to our advantage. It is because we want those factories that produce certain products to sell their products outside the country but if you look at Statutory Instrument, 64 of 2016, it was crafted in such a fashion that we will not run out of employment.
We will also not run out of monies and groups of people that produce certain products. We will restrict externalisation of our funds by way of buying certain commodities that we produce. So, I think it is a piece of legislation that is in good faith, it is not in bad faith.
Mr. Speaker Sir, let me touch on the introduction of bond notes. Yes, Hon. Dr. Mashakada could be right to say not much information has gone out especially to our people in the rural areas to understand the importance of the bond notes that are coming in. You will find that we are resorting to the introduction of bond notes as a way of minimising externalisation of the US dollar. We are also doing that as a way to ensure that we can trade within our parameters, within the country, we cannot just stand, sit there and cry without doing anything. So, our Government is trying by all means to make sure that we improve the economic situation of the country.
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