Zim business bemoan talks collapse

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has called on Zimbabwe’s rival parties in the negotiating parties to quickly finalise the talks to find a long lasting solution to the political and economic standstill as this had triggered a further business decline in the country.CZI, president Callisto Jokonya said in a weekly newspaper that the economy has continued to plunge deeper in an abyss since the talks were adjourned.Since the collapse of the talks this month, the prices of basic foodstuffs and services have escalated beyond the reach of many while companies and industries continue to register low capacity of production.”Business is concerned with the delay of the talks and is appealing to politicians to consider the life of the 13 million people ahead of personal gains,” Jokonya said.Jokonya bemoaned the economic sanctions slapped on Zimbabwe by Western countries and her allies adding that the power sharing talks should be finalized as a matter of urgency and end the country’s woes.The Central Statistics Office (CSO) this week said the official inflation figures are estimated to be more than 11 million percent but the economic analysts revealed that the figure is estimated to be between 15 million and 20 million percent.The talks were suspended when opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai refused to sign the document saying he needed time to reflect.Zimbabweans from all sectors expressed happiness when Robert Mugabe of Zanu PF, Morgan Tsvangirai MDC and Arthur Mutambara of the breakaway MDC signed a Memorandum of Understanding hoping to bring normalcy to a devastated economy.The CZI said there will never be a solution without the two parties sitting down and finding a lasting economic and political solution”. He said the only hope for Zimbabweans was pinned on the outcome of the power sharing talks.Former Deputy of Information and Publicity Bright Matonga said on Wednesday that the opposition MDC is not serious about hammering an agreement on the on going talks.Meanwhile the talks which were adjourned on the SADC heads of state in South Africa are expected to resume on Friday but Morgan Tsvangirai’s party wants to petition SADC mediator Thabo Mbeki over the breach of Memorandum of Understanding by Robert Mugabe.Mugabe convened the 7th session of parliament without the consent of other leaders and is expected to announce his cabinet soon.

Malawi lags behind in internet use

Owing to the lack of adequate infrastructure and high costs, Malawi still lags behind in the use of internet. Malawi’s minister of labour Davis Katsonga was speaking in the country’s capital Lilongwe during the opening of the 3rd annual connecting Rural Communities Africa Forum.Katsonga said few people use the internet in the country due to high costs.Internet users diffusion in Malawi is the lowest among countries in the region and that has made the access to internet very high, he said. Recently during a meeting of Librarians and Information experts in Southern African region in Zambia, it was observed that Africa still lags behind in the use of computers especially the internet.The gathering also noted that things like agriculture would improve tremendously as we look ahead to fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) if for instance farmers in the rural areas have access to the internet to learn new skills.The minister said the country which depends on agriculture for its economy just like other nations in the region has a big mountain to climb as regards to spreading Information and communication technology (ICT) to the rural areas.In Malawi the internet is mostly used in the urban areas and there is still a long way for ICT to penetrate the urban areas.Malawi’s minister of information and civic education was quoted in the local newspaper on Wednesday as saying that the country is planning to have all urban centres connected by 2012 and connect rural areas by 2015.The report further quoted the minister as saying Malawi has only 12 percent penetration of telecommunication.The forum which opened on Tuesday has drawn together 180 international delegates with three ministers of information from Kenya, Tanzania and Sierra Leone.According to the report Malawi is the third country to host the regional forum after Kenya and Rwanda.