By Justice Zhou
Japan has kicked up a bit of dust by employing the controversial quantitative easing policy, showing all and sundry that it can no longer afford to confine itself in that little vicious cocoon of deflation and slow economic growth.
Japan has kicked up a bit of dust by employing the controversial quantitative easing policy, showing all and sundry that it can no longer afford to confine itself in that little vicious cocoon of deflation and slow economic growth.
Following his return to government after a five
year hiatus, Prime Minister Shinzō Abe is also reaching out to Africa this time around with
plenty of fire in his belly—increasing development aid and investment
pledges to Africa in particular, and Zimbabwe in general.
It seems the wheels of “Abenomics” are starting
to turn, at a time when Japan was already being viewed as a missing link in the
global economic recovery efforts. This perhaps marks the end of two decades of
deflation for an economic and technological miracle that was once the envy of
the entire world, and so much for the yen’s troubles.
Abenomics refers to the economic policies advocated by Japanese premier Abe, meant to fix his country’s macroeconomic problems.
Even so, analysts and economists are still at
variance on whether it’s eventually crack of dawn in the “land of the rising
sun”, with some of its most acerbic critics still regarding Japan as an also-ran,
a no-hoper on the world economic and financial arena.
But the Asian economic giant’s promise to fork
out about US$32billion to support the building of infrastructure, spurring of
growth and to encourage Japanese firms to invest in Africa over the next five
years is rather superb, if not of monumental significance.
Abe announced the package at the just-ended Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), in which Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe also partook among other African leaders.
TICAD) ended with Zimbabwe also expected to benefit considerably from renewed Japanese support programmes.
Zimbabwean Ambassador to Japan Stuart Comberbach was quoted in the media as having said Japanese officials pledged to invest in different sectors of Zimbabwe’s economy.
State media reports have implied that Mugabe’s visit could mean the start of Zimbabwe’s break out from “Western-imposed isolation”.
Will Tokyo step into the breach?
Will Tokyo step into the breach? Will it fall over its back, straying from its foreign policy—which is anchored on the belief that peace and prosperity at home contributes to peace and prosperity abroad—simply to cater for the whims of a few crooked Zimbabwean politicians?
I doubt if Japan will stoop so low, or its policymakers’ minds be clouded by their country’s appetite for natural resources to such an extent that they would ignore their earlier pledge to rally round Africa by bolstering inclusive growth which trickles down to the poor.
However, Zimbabwe has ample natural resources
for its part, while on the other hand Japan’s commitment and relations with
Zimbabwe have been cordial over many years until late 2000, for obvious
political goings-on in the southern African country.
Japan’s overtures should be welcomed with both
hands, but right now the greatest challenge facing Zimbabwe is its rather
cryptic election poser. Who knows what the outcome of the upcoming polls would be?
Who will be in charge of government after the much-anticipated elections?
If the answer to the latter is that the next
government will be that which relishes international trust, upholds good
governance, looks after its poor and unemployed people and adheres to the
tenets of constitutionalism, fights corruption and political cronyism, then
Japan’s aid or investment will come in handy.But if it’s exactly the opposite of that, then
we can as well kiss good bye to economic recovery in Zimbabwe.
Lukewarm
presence
Even as Japanese involvement in Zimbabwe has noticeably
been characterised by a lukewarm presence in the last decade or so, what the
Asian country has done for us is beyond measure.
Growing up in a remote rural part of southern
Zimbabwe in the late 90s, it wasn’t difficult to notice even at my schooling
age the enormity of Japanese presence in many aspects of social and economic
development—road and dam construction, sinking of boreholes, financial and technical
assistance to small-holder farmers, health and educational support, you name
it.
If you were in Zimbabwe at the time you can
recall vividly the many DDF (District Development Fund) trucks emblazoned with
the Zimbabwean and Japanese flags, the record speaks for itself.
It’s therefore disingenuous for Zimbabwe government officials to seethe with dissatisfaction and blast Japan for having not helped enough or having withdrawn most of its aid. There’s just lots of corruption and bad governance to go around. Who would want to risk throwing money into a bottomless pit?
