Popular Economist and commentator Eddie Cross has penned the following items and labelled them his Christmas wishlist. Here is Eddie’s Christmas Wishlist for his country:
- The first item is, these wretched shortages: Fuel, power and food basics…We have to switch the procurement of these essential commodities to the private sector and use the infrastructure of the SOEs to deal with logistics and storage.
- The second item on my wish list is property rights. It is time that we recognised, as a nation, not just in government, that property rights are sacrosanct. If we do not have a legal system and a government or even a national perspective on this issue, we are going nowhere.
- My third wish on the list is to adopt policies that recognise the value of foreign exchange and the need to use it responsibly and on a market-driven allocation basis. Right now we have a system that transfers control over foreign exchange from those who have earned it to people who control its allocation as a source of power, influence and privilege
- My fourth wish is that we as a nation must strive in 2020 to agree on where we are going as a country. The Bible says that a ”house divided cannot stand” and that ”a nation without vision will perish”. At present we are stuck with both problems and we must accept that unless we get to grips with this issue we will not make real progress and maintain our stability.
- My fifth wish is that we get to grips with how we manage our local authorities. What we are doing now is just not working.
- Finally, our leadership must recognise that no Nation can make its way in the world of today without a good education and health services. We spend a lot of money on both, but performance is deteriorating and fast. If we do not get this right we put all our futures, not just the next generation, at risk.
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