How do we do this – using modern technologies which mean that we can extend these rights to everyone at very low cost.
We need to talk to our Diaspora and to agree how to help them invest at home and to support their families here. We have a Diaspora of probably nearly 6 million adults who earn tens of billions of real dollars in the outside world. They can send money home in an instant and are keen to invest in ventures that make sense and will yield a real return. But they want to know that their money and their families are safe. Is that so difficult? They also are an enormous fund of intellectual capital with great experience. Let’s harness this to our mutual benefit.
Finally let’s use our rich resources and location at the strategic cross roads of the region. We are the richest country in the world on a per capital basis when our natural resource base is valued and set off against our population. New information suggests we are already producing over 100 tonnes of gold per annum worth an estimated US$4,5 billion. We could produce 3 million tonnes of ferrochrome worth another US$3 billion. In the process we would put millions of our people to work – many in self-supporting small scale business.
We could put 2 million hectares under irrigation – generating many billions in farm products and again putting millions to work. We could become one of the world’s largest producers of citrus, and horticultural products. We could dominate the world market for quality tobacco and fibre based crops. The list is endless.
For the past 5 decades, the fastest growing industry in the world has been tourism. Dubai with nothing but desert and sea water has created a transport and tourist hub that handles a million people a week today. Spain, an arid and harsh European peninsular attracts another 60 million holiday makers every year. Zimbabwe with its perfect weather and moderate temperatures, where you can play golf in brilliant sunshine 360 days a year on world class courses for a small fraction of what it would cost you anywhere else in the world and with the Victoria Falls and the wild life Parks, remains a hidden opportunity.
I am convinced that if we get our policies right, nurture a national consensus on where we want to go and draw on our rich local and Diaspora resources we can get Zimbabwe onto the road to recovery and growth. But we have to maintain our discipline and peace, we have to demonstrate our capacity manage our affairs properly and to get corruption and all forms of human rights abuse under control. All of that is under our management – we do not need any outside assistance or help to create these conditions. All it takes is leadership.
Eddie Cross
1st December 2019
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