One of the most dominant developments in African governments in the last four decades is the issue of nationalisation which has been driven mainly by politics and ideology. This stems from the need to increase local control over economies which, prior to gaining political freedom, were completely dominated by foreign nationals and corporates. Although this looked workable in its initial stages, it later backfired, affecting almost all sectors of the economy. As feared by several economists and technocrats, nationalisation could easily affect macroeconomic goals of economic growth such as employment creation and inflation rate. The other factor is that, should modern African governments pursue nationalisation, then they are headed for economic disaster.
Thursday, 31 May 2012
Dark side of nationalisation?
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
From Beijing With Weapons, 3rd Edition
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Corruption Watch (Various)
The Joint Government Investigations Team formally charged China's Zhongui Mining Company for alleged corrupt practices with a public officer. It is alleged that the mining firm corruptly gave former Mines Minister Maxwell Mwale received over K470m gratifications as an inducement or reward for the issuance of mining prospecting licenses in North Western province.
Police authorities are pursuing members of an agricultural cooperative society in Mumbwa who include a senior police reservist for theft of more than K2 billion. The senior police reservist has been stripped off his position to pave the way for investigations concerning the K2 billion which he and others received from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) for maize purported to have been supplied.
Zambia Revenue Authority has announced that it will institute investigations into the alleged corruption among some of staff at Nakonde border post as alleged by the customs clearing agents who staged a protest over the weekend. Clearing agents have been accused ZRA officers of working in collaboration with some agents in under-valuing goods to evade paying appropriate taxes.
Monday, 28 May 2012
Energy Watch (Hydro Power)
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Talking unemployment without solutions..
"Unemployment has grown across the world since the onset of the global financial crisis...There is now a need to incorporate employment creation into the formulation of macroeconomic policies to improve employment outcomes. That is why the ILO and the IMF are supporting this national dialogue"
“Growth and jobs are inseparable, and Zambia must invest in social protection, diversify its economy, and reduce its dependency on copper”
“We need to steer employment creation in the right direction. For that we need coherence and balance across policies, as well as coordination and dialogue among institutions and stakeholders. This conference has marked an important step in that direction”
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Society, entitlement and preferences
The recent work in psychology and economics has implications that are only beginning to be explored for the examination of the question how different aspects of society affect preferences, but which promise to undermine long-held standard assumptions in economics. If historical institutions shape preferences, which shape the choice of public policies and their effects, then societies almost surely have different optimal paths of development. If individuals understood these processes, they could design policies to nurture desirable preferences and in turn shape the paths of economic change. At a minimum, these findings should give pause to those who accept WTAs, WTPs, and market prices as stalwart guides to welfare.
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Zambia's neverending borrowing
Monday, 21 May 2012
Zambian School Triumphs in Global Competition
Friday, 18 May 2012
Exceptional People (A Review)
International migration debate has risen on the global public agenda in the last few years. Sluggish global economic performance has given a platform for nationalistic forces to agitate for stronger limits on migration, largely fuelled by concerns that foreigners may take away local jobs and impose costs on public services with little benefit to domestic European economies. Such arguments, usually made without any empirical evidence, in practice have only served to highlight the inherent inconsistency in current migration policies being pursued by western governments. While most continue to preach global liberalisation of economies and poverty reduction, they erect borders that diminish competition and reduce labour choices available to the poor. Goldin, Cameron and Balarajan’s Exceptional People represents a challenge to this inconsistency by seeking to demonstrate that properly considered the historical, contemporary and future case for migration is strong.
Thursday, 17 May 2012
China's New Colonialism in Africa
By Chola Mukanga
The word colonialism naturally awakens images of King Leopold and other tyrants in ages gone by that subjected defenceless Africans in the rampant thirst for wealth and power. This shouldn't surprise us because the human mind has the tendency to gravitate towards the worst triangulation of any issue, even though reason dictates that much of colonialism is subtle and propagated through indirect structures.
Chola Mukanga is an economist and founder of the Zambian Economist which provides independent economic perspectives on Zambia's progress towards meaningful development for her people
Copyright: Zambian Economist, 2013
www.zambian-economist.com
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Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Aviation Watch (New Routes)
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
On Constituency Development Funds, 2nd Edition
Mr L. J. Ngoma (Sinda) : What has been the impact of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) had been on the socio-economic development of constituencies from inception to date? And when is the CDF for 2012 going to be released to all the constituencies?Local Governmemt Deputy Minister Mr Tembo: I urge the House to pay attention as I give a comprehensive answer which is of benefit to all the 150 constituencies.The ministry has not measured the impact of the CDF on the socio-economic development of constituencies from inception to date. However, there are two major studies which were conducted by Caritas Zambia and the Economic Association of Zambia (EAZ) on the impact of the CDF which are in public domain.The findings of these studies indicated the following:
Monday, 14 May 2012
Barriers to Justice (Sub-Standard Prisons)
Friday, 11 May 2012
Should Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia be privatised?
"Our total budget as a ministry is K1.6 trillion and revamping this plant would chew up the whole budget, so the ultimate solution as government is to privatise this plant as soon as we find a suitable investor"
Thursday, 10 May 2012
A poverty of policy making
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Reversing domestic violence, 2nd Edition
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Corporate Social Irresponsibility
The Post recently run an excellent editorial directly echoing what we have been saying :
"We are not interested in mining companies running our townships. We want them to pay reasonable taxes so that together with our government, we can decide how to best use that money to develop our country and improve the living conditions of our people. We can’t be begging for money that is ours. We are not interested in donations from mining companies; what we are interested in is fair and reasonable taxes and just wages for our people and respect for the environment. If these companies were paying reasonable taxes, they would not be interested in any way to take up responsibilities they had from the very inception refused"
“What Government [needs] is for these companies mining important minerals to pay tax so it can be used for national development, Corporate Social Responsibility should not be building a clinic or school but paying taxes accordingly".The problem is that Ministers are struggling to understand this very simple argument. But it's great to see some of our more 'difficult to understand' arguments (to some) finding public traction.
Monday, 7 May 2012
Investment Watch (Various)
Friday, 4 May 2012
Mine Watch (Various)
Zinc Aluminium Lead Copper Limited (ZALCO) is looking to create 1,000 jobs in Kabwe when its multi-million manufacturing and processing plant is completed next year. The company is appealing to Government recognise "its huge investment", by helping it with wider training programmes that will "produce people who will have skills that the private sector needs".