Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Says There Should Be Less Government In Business

There is growing evidence that pressure of running what is increasingly a command economy is getting to the Zimbabwean government. Government officials instead of admitting failure or shortcomings, are constantly lashing out at everything in state media including making false claims that we have enough fuel or blaming people for eating too much thus causing an economic crisis.

The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce has expressed concern at the increasing interference by government in the private sector. They warned that the government’s excessive interference in the economy is actually stifling growth. ZNCC Chief Executive Officer Christopher Mugaga said that government’s constant overreach was now leaving little room for enterprise.

Government hand is just too much. There is no economy which has grown without room for enterprise. The government hand is just everywhere..

Liberalise, you can’t control what you don’t have. That’s the government hand we are talking about.

…The committees are just getting too much. After this forex committee, the next thing you have subcommittees one for fuel another for health it’s too much. Government hand is too much.

He is right the government hand’s everywhere

One of the reasons why the government’s policies are unravelling is that they are just trying to do too much. A macroeconomic environment has too many pieces that make the economy tick. There are some sectors of the economy that might seem to be unimportant until you mess with them.

Take for example the issue of foreign currency allocation. No matter what the government does someone is always going to complain that they were passed over. There are no easy choices: do you pay up the fees of foreign students, pay some container company, get more fuel, get medicines or fund the president’s trip where he might come with investments, buy wheat for bakers or pay some container company?

The truth is that no matter what you do there is always an opportunity cost. Personally I think people were unfairly blaming the RBZ and this much touted committee is not going to fare much better. No matter what the RBZ did there was always going to be someone who would be complaining or some industry closing.

That is why it is always prudent to allow market forces to deal with these things. If Zimbabwe had really been opened up for business market forces should have been left to determine the value of the bond note. The government has always rightly suspected that the value of the bond note would fall faster than a canon ball.

The downside of too many regulations and taxes is that they can be stifling to innovation and enterprise. In fact experience has shown that too many regulations form a Gordon knot that will ultimately kill free business. Something that the 29th President of the United States so eloquently put forth:

[There should be] Less government in business and more business in government

Those words uttered back in 1865 are just as true today as they were back then.