The Policy Monitoring and Research Center has proposed that the Government should evaluate its portfolio of state-owned assets and enterprises, and develop a privatization strategy that benefits the public whilst promoting private-sector-led economic growth.
The PMRC has further proposed that Government should hive-off companies which do not have a sound business case because these pose a fiscal burden on the treasury, with the exception of those that provide critical public goods and services that can not be delivered by the private sector such as Medical Stores Limited and Engineering Services Corporation.
The PMRC is concerned that the Government still has about 32 State-Owned Enterprises on its books under the IDC, 17 of which are loss-making and draining Government finances.
Center Executive Director Bernadette Zulu said of the 15 profitable SOEs under IDC, some of these may be attractive to the private sector, who will be willing to invest and grow the sector – something that the Government is not in the position to do right now.
Mrs Zulu acknowledged that Zambia’s economy is struggling, growth is low, investment is falling and unemployment is rising therefore opening state monopolies to private sector participation could help to stimulation growth.
She said government should list profitable companies on the Lusaka Stock Exchange to raise new capital and facilitate citizen ownership through established legislation and institutional mechanisms.
Mrs Zulu said this should be conducted in an open and transparent process that ensures public scrutiny and adherence to the laws which will ensure that new capital, technology and skills are invested in these strungling companies.
“Government should restructure State-Owned Enterprises with a strong orientation towards commercialization and transparency in their operations.
Boards of these institutions must be constituted on merit and the ability to supervise these companies. The government should implement effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that target financial performance, governance and risk mitigation through periodic reporting to ensure corrective measures are continuously implemented”, she added.
Mrs. Zulu said the government should implement performance frameworks and provide regular updates on the progress of companies’ management teams which should include compliance on statutory obligations, financial performance, implementation
of cost-benefit measures through analysis, institutional growth in the market, innovation towards job creation across sector value chains and payment of dividends.
She said the government should develop a reward system that promotes the excellence and performance of State-Owned Enterprises.
The cash cows have been milked dry!
One such company is definitely Zamtel.
List Zamtel on LuSE and Prune off current top management for it to bear new shoots. I am interested mwe.
I wanna buy shares.
I wonder, howz Zanaco doing on LuSE?
Zaffico is on LuSE already, I guess.
kutumpa fye uku….
Don’t bring that privatization shhit, you make HH and Zambians loose elections.
How can someone who cant manage their personal finances be giving policy advice? This is why proper banks do credit checks on their staff.
To me any idi.ot advocating for privatization in Zambia is a hired hand, if like normal countries that embarked on it, does not talk of its citizenry in mind. As long as such advocates do not emphasise that privatization should be 100% to indigenous black zambians then they are representing a certain people who are paying them for this service.
I doubt ba PF has the capacity to understand what evaluating means, or commercialization means. They don”t know any of this. All they might hear here is sale to Chinese & get a cut.
UPND is not different. Ka hh is thinking no let PF leave it to us when we take power in 2050 then we can take the proceeds to Panana after we ourselves buy shares. Zambians are always the losers in these programs.
I have worked with this intelligent and beautiful woman. I take her advice seriously. We will look into her submissions. However if we decide to privatize any entity, one thing we won’t do is rip off this country by undervaluing parastatals like the traitor HH did. Kz
Oh dear, this is 2020! , has failed to run the economy and all you remember is something that happened over 20 years ago. If the parastatals were undervalued , why did MMD agree to the valuations? Who determined the final price of the firms to be sold, the Evaluator, Seller of the buyer and What happened to the money raised from the sale of the firms?
Did she repay her debt ? She was taken to court for Kaloba.
Debt is a common disease among PF sympathizers.
Kz: What is your new position?
This little girl Bernadette Zulu who could not answer any questions on International News channel, I hope she has not been paid for this basic advice as these are the ones bleeding the govt dry with pointless seminars with their minister sugar-daddies in Siavonga. I hope she has paid back her loan to that company that sued her.
You have a lot of hate in you. Leave this beautiful hardworking woman alone. Jealousy is not a zambian trait. Are you even zambian?
It’s a privilege to have you on this platform KZ. Your experience in politics and nationhood will bring a lot of sanity here. However, expect a lot of these brainless attacks from you-know-who supporters who really offer no solutions!!
Citizen thank you for having me on this platform. Indeed I am beginning to find my feet here and knowing who the usual suspects are. I m here for constructive debate and discussion .I can only hope that our friends in opposition will return the favour by being level headed and mature. Happy new year to you and your family. Kz
Tarino Orange is a lamebrain, a wazzock.
Always troubling innocent gals online.
He is an IVF product.
As usual the dull PF cadres have fallen for bait, just think about it, look through the threads and ask yourself which LT blogger has time to waste for impersonations and is UK based. If you were prey in the national park you would have been on someone’s menu already.
Tarino I presume you assume that my location is in the United kingdom based on the flag showing on my profile. Actually, the IP setting for the systems I use via VPN show a United kingdom IP address. This is for security reasons. When you work for the highest office in the land, you have to be cautious. For all you know I might be in Barbados right now or even in kabulonga. Happy new year. Kz
Thorn in the A$$ and dumb Zambian Citizen – s/he has given you more clues, just think about a blogger who is always blocked on LT and they unblock themselves so they can continue to troll this website. I know Zambian Citizen you are thick as fresh quick dry concrete so I spare you so you can continue drinking chibuku. So dont rejoice that you are communicating with your blesser like that boy Tayali.
Progressive people discuss ideas. This is a proposal that will have the technocrats and politicians thinking. Privatisation is still fresh in Zambians’ minds and the experience left a bad impression on people’s psyches. Private sector driven growth has equally let people down. What ZCCM and KKs parastatals did for the population cannot be compared to what the private sector has done in MMDs 20 years. This is a matter that will require wide introspection and consultation. Thank you, Berna!!
Oh another Zulu? ZESCO has another Herzel, state house ni Zimba, Malupenga replaces Kasolo, Dr. Kansembe to Brazil. What do you call this? TRIBALISM!
You are overthinking things. So just because 10 people from one province are competent for various roles , should they not be employed just to show that we are not tribal? We are all zambian and I believe in the best man or woman getting the job done.
KATANA
WHERE IS THE TRIBALISM IN THE NAMES YOU HAVE MENTIONED? WHAT TRIBE IS ZULU, OR ZIMBA OR MALUPENGA OR KASOLO OR KANSEMBE? THIS IS THE REASON HH WON’T WIN NEXT YEAR BECAUSE HIS SUPPORTERS CLEARLY SAID ONLY A TONGA CAN BE UPNDEAD PRESIDENT. THAT IS CLEAR TRIBALISM
what you call yourself as KZ , look the more you show that you are not fired and still associated to GRZ and the PF , sorry that does not help either GRZ or PF , look the best you do go under and just eat . The people to be affected are those who have helped you my young brother, when are you going to be wise.
Look the statement itself have has a wrong title and also contradictory statement , look at China and Singapore , they have both Parastatals and half SOEs called Government linked companies ie; IndoZambia Bank and more , so it is all misleading and i know that statement had to come now , as the PMRC is the PF propaganda institution for policy misdirection sadly enough
All in all, a good piece of advice from the Policy Monitoring team. To have 17 non-performing parastatals out of 32 is simply unsustainable for any economy. I like when people think progressive and offer solutions to problems instead of complaining all the time. “Complaining is not a strategy” as Jeff Bezos says, one of the richest enterpreneurs in our times.
Wishing everyone here and all over Zambia a good start into the New Year. Let’s see what 2020 brings..
Let’s hope you will be wiser in 2020 instead of the gullibility,docility and imbecility your paraded yourself in the last decade.
Wach auf, Dummkopf!
Cheers
Did she repay her debt ? She was taken to court for Kaloba.
Debt is a common disease among PF sympathizers.
Nine we don’t need good advice but the right advice. The right advice is lungu resigning so a capable person can take over. Lungu has literally killed everything he touched , our institutions are on life support, the workers are not paid on time meanwhile the people before pf managed to sustain these same institutions. Kaiser and lungu are bad luck let’s toss them away and see how fast the country rebounds than this slide it’s in.
We need like a 25% re- evaluation of state owned assets and 95% re-evaluation of those managing them.The latter is where a clearout is needed.
Whilst the case for privatisation can be a pro and cons the CASE for Zambia requires much thinking and strategy especially for high impact sectors of our economy
Sometimes its the case of Managing and not sectorial performance and potential One would ,given funding and capitalization strategies in debt, equity, import and export finances that includes trade finance and guarantees to wholesale funding and intermediaries on those good assets of public nature, advise that GRZ like other global IDCs take greater ownership and participation including leadership strategies to drive these important state assets that drives the economic outcomes
That is why in other countries investments in…
these industries is subjected to cabinet and under the committee of foreign investments like the CFIUS because they could be critical assets of the country like this Zamtel They cannot simply be off-loaded but rather be an example of other competing private sector companies
If you read the orientations of IDCs global and strategies in its units privatization has not always been the option but in rare circumstances What has been the missions of IDCs is to drive growth in strategic controlled state owned enterprises
I think the privatization issue must be carefully recommended and discussed
There is no doubt there is need for Government sectorial involvement in manufacturing,Mining,Infrastructure,Energy,Education and others of critical importance at the same time allowing and promoting private participation or investments in new competing firms
Well its at various Business life-cycle profiles from conceptual to maturity and that should be determined by the nature and economic impact assessments of not having those iDC privatized and why if not the private cannot start up there own because even though you privatized the nature of private FDIs investments must be critically analysed
Okay will see you thanks
The picture, smiling lady. Let me tell you hunger in this country is at its grand climax and poverty is not smiling! Corrupt-inscripted and Pay-to-play institutionalized politically guided job appointments in SOEs is recipe for disaster. For example you accompanied president to New York for financial analysis and discussion but the suitable candidate was supposed to be Mary FIC Chirwa. See how corruption works. Nevertheless, Your ground state propositions were first suggested in the unip govt. President Chiluba in cohort with wh1te collar thieves evaluated our parastatals at the rate of make-shift-toilet. Study the privatization model of Russia following the collapse of Soviet Union.
Calamity!
The only good things in this article are what OTHERS HAVE SAID BEFORE: COMMERCIALISE SOEs and APPOINT BOARDS AND MANAGEMENT ON MERIT- REMOVE POLITICAL INTERFERENCE,ESP UNDER PF!!The rest is hopeless,privatisation in some cases only leads to asset stripping total loss for Zambians.WHY NOT PURSUE THE OPTIONS OF SEEING HOW BETTER WE CAN RUN OUR OWN SOEs RATHER THAN GIVING THEM AWAY TO FOREIGNERS SINCE AS ZAMBIANS WE HAVE NO FINANCIAL MUSCLE TO BUY THEM!!
Even both ERB and ZESCO are not properly functional. Did you see the ERB Board Chair?
According to a statement of claim Vyansilati Enterprise Limited is demanding that Deka pays back the K2,675,000.00 at 15 per cent interest per week from the date of default, being April 27 this year, until the date of the writ.
The Government, especially Minister for Lusaka Province and Mayor & Councillors of Lusaka City, should critically scrutinize the exploitative management of Lusaka Water & Sewage Company (LWSC). This Company has deliberately laid-off Meter Readers in order to charge customers through estimated Bills. It turns out that LWSC monthly bills are FOUR (4) times more expensive than the monthly payment due to ZESCO. Yet the cost of generating, maintenance and supply of electricity by ZESCO is a much more expensive engineering venture compared to LWSC. Lusaka residents need help to stop exploitative tactics of LWSC.
This analysis is lopsided. What jobs have the hundreds of companies that were privatised created including the mines? Instead they lay off workers, create jobs in South Africa etc. Rather government must focus on building internal on high employment sectors such as infrastructure firms to create local gaints to stimulate economy. There big questions on privatisations now.