The Challenge of Quantifying the Infrastructure Gap in Zimbabwe: Part 7

The perceived country risk impacted negatively on the appetite of the private sector to invest as well as decreased donor engagement owing to outstanding arrears By Dr Eddie Mahembe Today’s article is a continuation of the previous six articles in the Zimbabwe Digital Express on the call for Zimbabwe to consider establishing the Public-Private-Community Partnership (PPCP) model as a panacea for building unity, improve access to quality infrastructure, and addressing development challenges such as unemployment, low economic growth, poverty, and inequality. As we have argued in this series, infrastructure also helps promote economic linkages, foster competitiveness and trade, reduces the cost of doing business, promotes the development of private sector, allows for access to markets and is a key enabler of regional integration. Cognizant of the critical importance of infrastructure in leveraging growth and poverty reduction, the Zimbabwe Economics Society (ZES) hosted a virtual monthly meeting on the 4th of May 2021, to discuss the main findings of the ‘Zimbabwe Infrastructure Report of 2019’ published by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The main speaker was the AfDB Country Manager, who was responsible for the coordination and production of the 2019 Report. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle