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The role played by ZIM-ASSET in entrepreneurship development . ZIM ASSET is an abbreviation for Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation and it is a document which was crafted by the government of the Republic of Zimbabwe towards rejuvenating the country’s economy through creation of employment , Food Security and Nutrition; Social Services and Poverty Eradication ;Infrastructure and Utilities ,value addition and beneficiation by the end of the year 2018 .The Mission of document is : “To provide an enabling environment forsustainable economic empowerment and social transformation tothe people of Zimbabwe”.This mission will be accomplished by the exploitation of the country’s abundant human and natural resources.ZimAsset is a cluster based Plan, reflecting the strong need to fully exploit the internal relationships and linkages that exist between the various aspects of the economy. These clusters are as follows: alue Addition and Beneficiation If the ZimAsset is to be implemented successfully, it is going to promote entrepreneurship development in the country. The following are some of the roles of the ZimAsset to the success of entrepreneurship and SMEs. Creation and growing opportunities for businesses This is a necessary move to resuscitate the dying Smes and create an opportunity for entrepreneurship in an injuredeconomy. Creation of opportunities means more people coming into business and also the creation of favourable conditions for starting up new businesses .This could be in the form of reduction of taxes, removal of some trade barriers and cutting short the process of company registration. Recapitalizationof SEDCO to finance development Recapitalization of Small EnterpriseDevelopment Corporation would make it easier for entrepreneurs to access funding which they can use for their day to day operations. Entrepreneurs would get loan access at lower costs and they will no longer have to search for funding from banks who usually demands for collateral security which SMEs will not have. Increased investment in infrastructure Increased investment in infrastructure helps entrepreneurs in the sense that if energy and power are developed Smes can perform to their full capacity without power cuts. If roads are maintained then they can be able to access their target markets .Accessibility is also a challenge since most roads have potholes thus not making it easy for SMEs to establish themselves in potential markets. Continued use of multicurrency to consolidate macroeconomic stabilization The use of the multicurrency helps to consolidate macroeconomic stabilization thereby creating a favourable operating environment free from escalating interest rates and hyperinflation which allows businesses to trade at a profit and without fears of changing economic situations. Improved liquidity Increase in the availability of funds makes business better and makes it easy for small businesses to survive since the money is in circulation customers are able to purchase necessary goods and services benefiting the SMEs as they will remain in business unlike when there is a liquidity crunch most goods and services are forgone due to financial constraints. “Look east” policy to unlock the flow of potential investment The look east policy can unlock the flow of potential investment which might help the SMEs grow into large corporations with the funding and development skills from the east. On the other hand despite its positive contribution to the success of Entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe, the Zim Asset also poses limitations to entrepreneurship development in Zimbabwe. There are various ways the Zim Asset as the economic blue print has restricted and bound the development of Entrepreneurship in the Zimbabwe. It limits foreign direct investment The ZimAsset limits the success of the SMEs in the country since it limits Foreign Direct Investment [FDI] inflow. The document starts with a misplaced view that sanctions slapped on Zimbabwe over a decade ago yet the Government wants to access loans from the IMF and the World Bank. These financial institutions will not be able to help because there are in the country attributed to the existence of sanctions thereby limiting FDI. The document sounds like its more of a political party’s document As coated in the executive summary it is written that ‘After the landslide victory by the ZANU PF Party in the 31st July 2013 harmonised elections, the Party was given the mandate to govern the country for a five (5) year term.This economic blue print was developed through a consultativeprocess involving political leadership in the ruling ZANU PF Party,Government, Private Sector and other stakeholders.’ This may have a negative impact since people in the country have different political views those who belong to a certain political parties may feel that the document is for these people hence they isolate themselves from participating or they may be isolated . It does not address the factors which hinders entrepreneurship development in the country The ZimAsset poses limitations to the success of SMEs in that does not really address the real factors that hinder entrepreneurship development. In Zimbabwe many SMEs are unregistered and the ZimAsset does not outline anything on this account. It does not talk of providing SMEs with loans without interests in order to increase their success. In short the document does not take into account the real factors that influence the success of Small businesses that is the availability of capital, training facilities. Current situation in Zimbabwe Financial situation In the ZIMASSET document they stated that funding is going to from BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and last month we witnessed the visit of our Russia counterparts to sign agreements that they will assist in Zimbabwe infrastructural development. However the funding is not enough to achieve the stated objectives in the ZimAsset. Sedco current position In the 2014 government financial budget the ministry of SME and corporative development was allocated 10% of what they actual needed hence it led to the reduction of finance of SEDCO lending facility. This means that SEDCO will not have enough money to entrepreneurs. A severe and persistent liquidity crunch which has made it very difficult for local productive sectors to access sufficient credit to oil the wheels of our economy. The existence of infrastructural bottlenecks Infrastructure bottlenecks especially around key economic enablers such as energy, transport, communication. These bottlenecks have eroded of viability and competitiveness of local producers in key economic sectors .This have resulted in low industrial capacity utilization, heightened by widespread company closures, deterioration in the external sector position, and rising formal unemployment. In this year alone about 100 of the industrial firms in Bulawayo have collapsed due to lack funds and decrease in demand for locally produced goods hence what was stated in the document is being implemented. Unethical behaviour Unethical behaviour of the people in high level offices such as tender committee members for instances, they recently awarded a rural hospital construction tender to a retail company and as we speak the hospital has not been built whilst the money was paid out to the so calledcompany. In addition the continued practises of invading taxes and duties by business have led to the failure of the policies to reduce imports by increase duty tariffs. The existence of many different political parties may lead to failure of the policy as the members of parliament share different views there will be no unity of purpose. In conclusion, it can be noted that the ZimAsset is as economic blue print which was built to enable Zimbabwe to achieve economic growth through empowering SME and exploitation of the country’s resources but at the moment it has failed to a greater extend due to issues we have highlight in before. The ZimAsset if implemented successfully and if all people participate towards achieving the goals of this document this will promote entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe.