Need for mining’s reinvention as critical economic pillar – Biti
CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – Mining needs to be reinvented as a mutually transformative win-win for countries and companies to put an end to the resource curse, which has destroyed the collective creativity of resource-rich economies, causing them to fall behind their resource-poor counterparts, former Zimbabwe Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the 2016 Investing in African Mining Indaba, Biti outlined how Africa’s 24 countries reliant on minerals as the dominant economic driver continually lagged the continent’s mineral-poor countries in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the Gini coefficient.
What was self-evident and shocking was that in the traditional 24 mineral-rich countries, mining had not created the basis of sustainable development and had not translated into benefits for the majority of people.
Human rights and labour lawyer Biti sketched how resource riches had instead become breeding grounds of political instability, patronage and crony capitalism.
Going forward, there was a need for a shift to a better paradigm for government, mining companies and communities.
He advocated the creation of sustainable developmental models to ensure backward, forward and particularly spatial linkages.
Besides industrialisation and beneficiation, economic diversification was key.
“If ever there’s a lesson in the current slump, it’s the need for diversification,” he said.
Significant opportunities existed for gross capital formation in energy and transport and investment openings were wide in agriculture, fisheries and information technology.
“I see the opportunity of power on the continent as a big silver lining in the reinvention of the mining sector,” Biti added.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation