Harare, (New Ziana) -Zimbabwe should view labour export more as an opportunity to build its foreign currency reserves than as brain drain, an expert has said.
Visiting International Labour Organisation (ILO) executive director Gilbert Houngbo said this soon after meeting President Emmerson Mnangagwa at State House on Tuesday.
He said Zimbabwe should leverage on its rich human capital base to grow its economy through the export of manpower to developed country.
“I don’t think that and I want to be very clear on this, I don’t think that we should look at that as developed countries taking away skilled labour, but trying to see that what is our interest, what is the interest of Zimbabwe and what is the interest of country of destination, and how do you come to a balancing act,” he said.
“Let’s keep in mind that Zimbabwe benefits US$2 billion of remittances coming from the Diaspora through the labour migrant. On the flip side it is important to deal with the risk of brain drain.”
Houngbo said brain power is one of the comparative advantages of Zimbabwe, hence the need to make sure that the country does not end up losing all its skilled workforce to developed countries by putting in place a controlled labour migration.
He said labour migration should not be viewed negatively as people shall always move and will continue to move, and to ensure a win-win situation, bilateral negotiating agreements involving trade unions and employer organisations are the way forward.
Houngbo said his visit to Zimbabwe was very successful ever since touching down at the Robert Gabriel International Airport on Sunday, as he has held rich discussions with various stakeholders.
“I consider and I really want to express my appreciation and thanks to the social partners. We have the positive mood, the positive predisposition to look at the issues. We may have issues, we all know that both political and social stabilities are quite import for any development to take place,” he stated.
Houngbo said the purpose of his courtesy call on President Mnangagwa was to brief him on his mission which started two days ago. He said they discussed the progress the country has made since his last visit six years ago when he was the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
“So we really discussed about progress Zimbabwe is making. I was here six years ago in my former capacity as president of IFAD and the economic stabilisation that is going on, including the new currency that is backed by the gold reserves, despite the fact that we do know that sometimes we need to continue making progress in stabilising the ZiG,” he said.
New Ziana