Green Paper: 2013 - 2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework
Friday, 28 September 2012
Green Paper - MTEF 2013 - 2015 and Budget 2013
Green Paper: 2013 - 2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Aid and Democratic Assistance
The impact of aid in terms of democratic consolidation is linked to the development of the party system, the efficacy of key democratic institutions, and accountability in relation to tolerance of participation by the media and civil society in the political process. The study suggests that there are many good reasons for so-called traditional donors to phase out aid to Zambia. Zambia has recorded economic growth for the most part of this decade, but poverty levels still stand at near 70 per cent and both equity issues and poor human development indicators provide reasons for concern. The study cautions against an aid exit at a time when economic growth and new foreign partners may strengthen the executive office vis-à-vis civil society, opposition and agencies of restraint. The study argues for an enhanced emphasis on democracy assistance that may strengthen stakeholders and institutions with capacity to hold the executive to account for their policy actions in terms of development.
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Road Carnage!
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Mining Watch (Various)
Monday, 24 September 2012
Maize Policy : A Farmers View
Friday, 21 September 2012
A new tax for health?
Thursday, 20 September 2012
Should the Zambian Government invest in railways?
With the poor economic and financial returns to railway investment and the uncertainty over Congolese traffic, public investment in railways in current circumstances appears highly risky. Few of the new rail routes proposed in the Sixth National Development Plan appear economically viable under any circumstances. While certain new routes could possibly be viable if mines are prepared to sign long term contracts, such decisions are best left to the private sector. Given its poor track record in railways and the under funding of essential public services, rather than investing in railways itself, the Government’s role should be to: (a) facilitate private investment in the sector; and (b) ensure that trucks cover the full cost of the damage they cause to the roads by enforcing appropriate road user charges.
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
Kwacha Rebasing Technical Paper
As we approach the rebasing of the Kwacha, there are still many unanswered questions as to the procedure. In a technical paper from earlier this month, the Bank of Zambia explains the outline procedure for rebasing. The paper is embedded below.
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Mine Watch (Various)
We have 16 producing copper mines, three new ones coming on stream in two years, backed up by existing and new smelting and refinery capacity..and known reserves for at least 50 years of future production. However, we have reshaped our mining investment strategy as we need to intensify exploration for the development of new mines and mineral based exports to deliver a new level of long term benefits from our resources...This more intense focus includes required new investment in our oil and gas potential, boosting manufacturing capacity to process a wider spectrum of minerals, and to parallel that growth with new manufacturing capacity for mining industry consumables....There is a major gap in Zambia’s economy in downstream processing our gemstones industrial minerals and dimensional stone and there are few if any local manufacturers of mining equipment such as drill rods, bits, jack hammers and piping....On that basis, we need both junior and large mining companies and resources investment houses, to install Zambia on their high priority investment agendas.
Monday, 17 September 2012
Rail vs Road
Mr Chipuwa explained that the road transporter does not meet the full cost of the infrastructure and is able to charge lower transport rates to the shipper or traveller, whereas the railway operator who meets the full cost of the track maintenance is forced to charge high tariffs compared to road users in order to recover costs. "Roads are constructed and maintained by Government with very little contribution from road users in form of road user charges. On the other hand, railway infrastructure is funded fully by the railway operator. In the Zambian context, this is further exacerbated by the fact that the railway operators pay the road levy for the fuel consumed by locomotives. This is indirectly subsidising the competitor who is the road transporter. The two factors mean that the railway operators namely Railway Systems of Zamia (RSZ) and Tazara become artificially expensive and, therefore, uncompetitive compared to road transport", Mr Chipuwa said.
Friday, 14 September 2012
Zambia's International Bond Issue
Thursday, 13 September 2012
British MPs on FRA Spending
Wednesday, 12 September 2012
Compulsory Acquisition of Railway Concession Rights
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Resource Blessing
There are well known antidotes to each of these problems: a low exchange rate, a stabilization fund, careful investment of resource revenues (including in the country’s people), a ban on borrowing, and transparency (so citizens can at least see the money coming in and going out). But there is a growing consensus that these measures, while necessary, are insufficient. Newly enriched countries need to take several more steps in order to increase the likelihood of a “resource blessing.”First, these countries must do more to ensure that their citizens get the full value of the resources. There is an unavoidable conflict of interest between (usually foreign) natural-resource companies and host countries: the former want to minimize what they pay, while the latter need to maximize it. Well designed, competitive, transparent auctions can generate much more revenue than sweetheart deals. Contracts, too, should be transparent, and should ensure that if prices soar – as they have repeatedly – the windfall gain does not go only to the company.Unfortunately, many countries have already signed bad contracts that give a disproportionate share of the resources’ value to private foreign companies. But there is a simple answer: renegotiate; if that is impossible, impose a windfall-profit tax. All over the world, countries have been doing this. Of course, natural-resource companies will push back, emphasize the sanctity of contracts, and threaten to leave. But the outcome is typically otherwise. A fair renegotiation can be the basis of a better long-term relationship.
Monday, 10 September 2012
What Money Can't Buy (A Review)
By Chola Mukanga
Michael Sandel’s What Money Can't Buy : The Moral Limits of Markets aims to awaken the public to the increasingly perverse role prices play in our lives. Everything appears to be up for sale. We appear to have moved from having a market to being a market. This triumphal encroachment of the price mechanism in every facet of life has been defended by its proponents as necessary for our “social good”. Sandel believes it’s precisely the opposite. Far from being neutral, as usually assumed by economists, prices corrupt the good things we value and care about in life. Reliance on prices diminishes social value hence the urgent need for everyone to take a step back and decide the moral limits of markets. For in doing so we are ultimately defining what society we want to live in.
Friday, 7 September 2012
Minimum Wage is Necessary
PF Economic Achievements, by the Numbers
By Jessica Achberger
What has the PF government achieved economically in the last year? So much of the media attention has been on President Sata's stand against corruption. People have been fired, boards dissolved, and charges brought against members of the previous administration. However, what we must now question, one year on, is what tangible economic factors have improved.
Kennedy Sakeni, Chief Government Spokesperson and Information and Broadcasting Services Minister, recently spoke to the Times of Zambia about Zambia's rise to economic prosperity. Mr. Sakeni stated that, in the first six months of 2012, Zambia saw a distinct rise in a number of economic factors. By the numbers:
Politics of Poverty in Zambia
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
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Thursday, 6 September 2012
The Challenge of Manufacturing
Successful long-term development therefore requires a two-pronged push. It requires an industrialization drive, accompanied by the steady accumulation of human capital and institutional capabilities to sustain services-driven growth once industrialization reaches its limits. Without the industrialization drive, economic takeoff becomes quite difficult. Without sustained investments in human capital and institution-building, growth is condemned to peter out.
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
The Proposed ZESCO tariff increase for 2013
By Ruth Henson
ZESCO is proposing to increase their tariffs by the
following amounts:
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Mine Watch (Various)
The people who own the mines are taking away 98 per cent of the revenue and our share as a country is two percent. You cannot develop a country like that. You cannot build the roads; you cannot build schools and hospitals. If you look at the performance of those countries where our mineral resources are taken then you can see that we are tremendously losing on everything. China which takes our copper produces more than us…Zambia has just moved from three percent to six per cent on mineral royalty and they are telling us we cannot impose a higher royalty on the mines and they threaten to pull out but in their country they get 24 per cent.