Zimbabwe economy: Indigenisation, Reserve Bank and parastatal sale
Zimbabwe indigenisation
Newsday (06 Dec) has reported that the Zimbabwean Government has 'shelved' its indigenisation legislation.
The indigenisation policy has been put on hold until the local economy recovers says the report.
Industry and Commerce minister Welshman Ncube said Cabinet had agreed to waive the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act for the time being and allow for flexibility in its application across sectors after noting its discouraging effect on foreign capital, considered critical for the economy’s recapitalisation and recovery.
Parastatal sale
The same report in Newsday also says Government is looking to offload more parastatals - government owned companies.
Finance minister Tendai Biti has disclosed government — which sold 54% of Ziscosteel to an Indian firm — is close to sealing another deal to dispose as much 60% of Agribank to a regional bank, amid plans to sell at least 50% of eight other parastatals to foreign “strategic partners” based on the “Zisco model”.
The list of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) being converted to foreign entities under the parastatals rationalisation programme include Air Zimbabwe, National Railways of Zimbabwe, Noczim, Agribank, Cold Storage Company, the Grain Marketing Board, NetOne and TelOne.
Reserve Bank
Zimbabwe's central bank will lay off 74 percent of its workers as part of a drive to return focus to its core role as a monetary authority, the bank's chief said in a statement on Tuesday.
Staff levels at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) grew more than 10-fold between 2003 and 2008 as it spearheaded a drive to pull the economy out of a severe crisis many blamed on President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono told a parliamentary committee the bank would lay off at least 1,600 employees, but state media said he had requested and had been granted permission to discuss the retrenchment costs in a private session. "We are looking at retrenching 74 percent of the central bank's staff," Gono said.
"I would like to say it is not one of the easiest tasks as it is going to be one of the largest retrenchments in the history of the country by a single institution," he said, adding the bank had cut employees' compensation proposals by two-thirds. (Reuters).