Source: NDS2 final lap towards Vision 2030: Govt – herald
Fungi Kwaramba
National Editor
ZIMBABWE is pushing ahead with policy measures under the National Development Strategy 2, which is the “last lap” towards Vision 2030, with Government implementing critical initiatives that are expected to reshape the economy, starting with a ban on the exportation of mineral ores in raw form.
Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet (Presidential Communications) Mr George Charamba described the reforms as part of the successive five-year national development plans.
He said these started with the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), which was followed by the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), with the NDS2 — currently in motion — being the final episode to the sequel towards Vision 2030, for Zimbabwe to become an upper-middle-class economy.
“NDS2 is the last lap. From NDS1 to NDS2, increasingly the citizenry will see more and more pronounced, unique policy thrusts, which have the effect of, one, addressing the ownership structure, two, restructuring the whole economy, so that we move away from the primary side to a tertiary side,” said Mr Charamba.
On Tuesday, Cabinet approved the Minerals Value Chain — from mining to beneficiation, industrialisation and exportation — framework, designed to maximise national earnings while building a vibrant downstream minerals industry that will create thousands of jobs.
Presently, Mr Charamba noted that the most discussed measure — the ban on mineral ores export — is meant to disallow the exploitation of primary raw materials whose supply is finite, and to force beneficiation and value addition at source, something that will have positive downstream effects in the middle to long term.
“Not many people have understood what that means. Essentially, what the State has decided is the way forward is to disallow the exploitation of primary raw material in what is, in fact, a finite resource we call minerals. The whole idea is that beneficiation, or the processing or value addition of those various minerals, happens at source,” he said.
“When we allow our mineral ores to go abroad in their raw form, we are doing several things. We are prejudicing ourselves to the extent that we are sending an unpurified resource, which may, in fact, contain many other mineral elements, to a foreign destination. Geologically, Zimbabwe is in a unique position where you never have any one mineral existing singly.”
Zimbabwe is officially recognised as having 63 different minerals, with the country’s unique geology, including the Great Dyke, hosting one of the world’s most diverse mineral resource bases, meaning that the mineral ore can be a composite of different minerals.
“Now, when you send your resources in that unprocessed way, what it means is, beyond the jurisdiction of Zimbabwe, the receiving jurisdiction then separates and ends up having more than three, four, five minerals out of the same ore body. And in that way, we are being prejudiced in respect of a finite resource,” said Mr Charamba.
“That is one reason we decided we were going to stop the exportation of mineral ores. The second reason is that because you have sent your ores in their raw form, it means there is going to be a tertiary level where those ores are now being processed. And for that processing to take place, it means employment, it means more hands.
“And what that means is, by simply allowing our ores to be exported in their raw form, we are essentially creating employment offshore against the background of people suffering from high unemployment. So really, that is not helpful to Zimbabwe.”
He said the third level has to do with integrity.
“You will notice that, together with this policy of disallowing the exportation of mineral ores is a new requirement that we set up some metallurgy centres where we analyse the constitutive elements in every ore that we have.
“This is meant to stop the mischief, which was fairly rampant in the mining sector, where if an ore body, say for instance five minerals, the miner would pick on the mineral of least value for royalty purposes, which means a low-value mineral is what defines the ore for purposes of taxation. Yet embedded within that same ore are more valuable minerals, which are not being accounted for in this country for the benefit of this country. So really, all those elements are so important, and we have had to curtail that mischief,” said Mr Charamba.
He also linked the raw ore export ban to President Mnangagwa’s thrust of modernisation and industrialisation.
“The second policy, which you will find and must be understood in terms of the first one I have just explained, has to do with the restoration of the nexus between mining and our industrialisation goals. We have disallowed mineral ores from being sent abroad in their raw form. What that means is, impliedly we have insisted that those minerals must be processed at home,” said Mr Charamba.
“But once they are processed, that’s not the result. We want now to see how that processed product feeds into our industrial and industrialisation ambition as a nation, which means, in respect of practically every mineral, we must have a value-addition chain which translates into an industry.
“Take, for instance, iron. We have Manhize. It gives us iron; it also gives us steel. We want to see a steel industry emerging out of that. Once you look at the transformation from mineral ore to an industry, you are now restoring that much-needed and much-missing nexus between mining and industrialisation.”
He said the new policy which Government has just announced is important for Zimbabwe because it ensures that the country gets better returns.
“It ensures that we restructure the whole economy away from the primary to the tertiary level. It ensures that we have quality jobs. Because as you move up the value chain, it means there must be a skills upgrade. And that then becomes quite critical in terms of employment creation but also creation of quality jobs,” Mr Charamba said.
The new Minerals Value Chain framework that was approved by Cabinet aims at shifting Zimbabwe from exporting raw minerals to becoming a globally competitive industrial manufacturing hub.
The framework seeks to close revenue leakages and is built on four pillars: value-added compliance certificates, local university-based scientific laboratories for mineral certification, a mine-to-market real-time tracking system, and integrated special economic zones for beneficiation.
Eight regional hubs have been established, supported by reliable energy supplies and a consolidated legal framework.
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