Phillimon Mhlanga in Victoria Falls
VICTORIA FALLS – Acting President Constantino Chiwenga last night said government will come up with policies to support business.
Chiwenga spoke at the on-going Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) conference in the resort town of Victoria Falls, adding that government will prioritise core issues of macro policies to revive the ailing economy.
“Government will come up with policies to support business,” Chiwenga said at the ZNCC Gala dinner held last night. He was guest speaker.
He added: “Let me reiterate that our mantra “Zimbabwe is open for Business” is a clarion call that attracts both local and foreign investment. (Now) it is important for government to come up with policies that enable businesses to grow and revive our economy,” he said.
Government is expected to come up with a large fiscal stimulus package when the Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Patrick Chinamasa and the central bank chief John Mangudya review their 2018 fiscal and monetary policies within the next two months.
Several business people who spoke to The Business Times on the sidelines of the Gala dinner last night, but preferred anonymity, said the new administration should look at tax rates on corporate profits and public works initiatives to modernise the country’s infrastructure and regulatory reforms that will favour profits in all sectors of the economy.
The fiscal package promise, they said should promote expansion. They said they want measures that will grow productivity and raise the supply side potential of the economy.
Economist, Tony Hawkins, who spoke to The Business Times on the sidelines of the ZNCC conference in Victoria Falls yesterday said: “It will be interesting to see how fast aggregate demand can grow under the new administration led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and how it can grow without being constrained by the economy’s potential output level, which recent estimates show to be growing slowly,” he said.
He added: “It will also be interesting to see whether the new administration initiatives will have important supply-side effects that would make the economy’s potential output grow noticeably faster than these recent estimates, plus permitting a faster growth in aggregate demand and output.
Sound infrastructure improvements will improve productivity in the long-run, but their effects are spread over a distant future,” Hawkins said
