"Tidbits From TNT" Sunday Morning 11-15-2020
TNT:
Tishwash: Finance begins by launching the salaries of employees throughout the state
The General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers confirmed, yesterday, Saturday, that the Ministry of Finance will start the process of launching the salaries of employees, starting today, Sunday, indicating that the disbursement of the salary of two consecutive months is linked to the employee's department.
Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi previously directed the finance and accounting departments in all ministries and state departments in the governorates regularly on Fridays and Saturdays and preparing the payroll lists for the months of October and the second," said the secretariat spokesman, Haider Majid, in a statement to the independent newspaper, Al-Sabah, pointing out that “ Launching salaries for the two months is not necessarily a one-off payment for all employees.
He added that "the financial liquidity became available after the approval of the law on financing the fiscal deficit by the House of Representatives," noting that "the departments that complete the lists as soon as possible, the salaries of the employees will be disbursed for two consecutive months. link
Harambe: Bloomberg Video: Zimbabwe- Turning Tattered Bills Into Profit (11/14/20)
Bloomberg Video: Zimbabwe- Turning Tattered Bills Into Profit (11/14/20)
Follow link to view 1:11 video from Zimbabwe.
“I don’t care how torn it is, I take it.” Currency dealers are repairing old, damaged U.S. dollars to resell for a profit in Zimbabwe amid the country’s ongoing economic crisis.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-11-14/turning-tattered-bills-into-profit-
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Harambe: Zimbabwe Mail : Zimbabwe opens new economic chapter
(11/15/20)
ZIMBABWE will turn a new economic chapter this week when Government unveils its new economic blueprint — the National Development Strategy-1 (NDS-1) — that is expected to provide the guardrails and springboard needed for the economy to take off.
The Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), from which the new programme takes over, has managed to deliver its primary goal — to stabilise the exchange rate and prices, and create conditions for growth.
It runs its full course next month.
President Mnangagwa will tomorrow headline the official launch of the NDS-1 in Harare.
Cabinet last week approved the strategy, which is projected to steer the economy into average annual growth rates of 5 percent.
It will run under the theme “Towards a Prosperous and Empowered Upper Middle-Income Society by 2030.”
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube last week said the programme was results-oriented.
A high-level monitoring and evaluation unit under the Office of the President and Cabinet will be established to undertake strict periodic reviews of progress for individual programmes.
“The NDS-1 is building on the successes and challenges of the TSP, which was the foundation,” said Prof Ncube.
“It then runs for five years; that is until the year 2025, and then in 2026 we then have the NDS-2, which then takes us towards an empowered and prosperous upper middle-income economy by 2030.”
The new plan has 14 priority areas: economic growth and stability; food security and nutrition; governance; moving the economy up the value chain and structural transformation; human capital development; environmental protection, climate resilience and natural resource management; housing delivery; ICT and the digital economy; health and well-being; transport, infrastructure and utilities; image — building and international engagement and re-engagement; social protection; youth, sport and culture; and devolution.
Its broad objectives include strengthening macro-economic stability, low and stable inflation, a stable exchange rate, inclusive and equitable real growth in the gross domestic product, promoting new enterprise development, employment and job creation, and industrialising and modernising the economy.
“In terms of process, it has been a very inclusive process for us to get to this point.
“Inclusive in the sense that it was inclusive within Government, but also inclusive more broadly because we have had extensive consultations nationally.
“Each ministry or cluster of ministries was leading a theme and we came to about 14 thematic areas, which were led by the various ministries or cluster . . .
“I must say that what is unique about the NDS is that it is very results-oriented.”
Prof Ncube said the Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda, will lead the daily monitoring of progress and management of the programme.
Experts who spoke to The Sunday Mail agree that the NDS-1 should be results-oriented and have an in-built monitoring mechanism.
Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe (LEDRIZ) senior economist Dr Prosper Chitambara said Government should prioritise employment creation, especially in infrastructure development and agriculture.
“It is now generally accepted that jobs — and when I say jobs I mean full and productive employment opportunities — serve the role of stimulating growth and development. So we need to see the mainstreaming of employment creation within the NDS-1.
“The NDS-1 must be focusing on those sectors that are labour intensive like agriculture. We are expecting that there is going to be an upsurge in investments targeting the agriculture sector and investment targeting infrastructure as well because infrastructure can also result in job creation.”
Government, he said, should also invest heavily in social services such as education and health.
Trade unionist and Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZTA) chief executive Dr Sifiso Ndlovu said the strategy should be driven by consumption, which stimulates production.
“Zimbabwe has been used to having debt-led development strategies over the years and what has that led us to?
“When that debt relief dried up, what happened? We failed to move.
“Why do we want a wage-led programme? It is because most households in our communities spend much of their money on consumption.
“It is this consumption that will stimulate production in industry and eventually stimulate our inward- looking economy,” he said.
The country is targeting to create a relatively prosperous economy in the next 10 years. Market watchers say the economic stability that has been created, particularly in the past five months, has the potential to anchor the envisaged economic growth. – Sunday Mail
https://www.thezimbabwemail.com/economic-analysis/zimbabwe-opens-new-economic-chapter/
Tishwash: The Iranian parliament is considering a bill to remove 4 zeros from the national currency
The Parliamentary Economic Committee in the Iranian parliament is discussing in its meeting today, Sunday, a bill to remove 4 zeros from the Iranian national currency.
A member of the Parliamentary Economic Committee, Mohsen Alizadeh, said in a press statement, "A bill to remove 4 zeros from the national currency has already been approved by the Islamic Consultative Assembly, but the Guardian Council objected to the bill and was returned to the Shura Council."
Alizadeh added, "The bill has been submitted to the Economic Committee for consideration, and it is finally scheduled to be considered at Sunday's session of the Parliamentary Economic Committee."
It is noteworthy that a bill to remove 4 zeros from the Iranian national currency was approved by the Islamic Consultative Council on May 4, but the Guardian Council objected to it and it was returned to the Shura Council. link
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Harambe: Washington Examiner: New Pentagon chief tells US troops that 'it’s time to come home'
(11/14/20)
The Pentagon’s new acting chief praised U.S. military service members for their sacrifices and for their successes in combating terrorism and suggested that he would be focused on helping wind down the war in Afghanistan, writing that “all wars must end” and “it’s time to come home.”
Christopher Miller, who had been the director of the National Counterterrorism Center until Trump selected him as the acting secretary of defense following Mark Esper’s firing this week, released a two-page letter Friday night, sending a message that the recent Pentagon shake-up might result in the hastening of the fulfillment of one of Trump’s longtime campaign promises: to bring troops home from Afghanistan.
“As we prepare for the future, we remain committed to finishing the war that Al-Qaeda brought to our shores in 2001. This war isn’t over. We are on the verge of defeating Al-Qaeda and its associates, but we must avoid our past strategic error of failing to see the fight through to the finish,” Miller wrote. “Indeed, this fight has been long, our sacrifices have been enormous, and many are wear of war — I’m one of them — but this is the critical phase in which we transition our efforts from a leadership to a supporting role.
We are not a people of perpetual war — it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought. All wars must end. Ending wars requires compromise and partnership. We met the challenge; we gave it our all. Now, it’s time to come home.”
A White House official had told the Washington Examiner earlier this week that the new Pentagon leadership would help Trump fulfill his foreign policy agenda, saying of Trump, “He wants to bring the troops home. He wants to end the wars.”
Two dozen U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2019. More than 2,200 U.S. military members have died in Afghanistan since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom, and more than 20,000 had been wounded in action.
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Mot: This Grandpa Finds $95,000 His Wife Hid For YEARS..
A man and his wife had been married for going on fifty years. They shared everything, but the one thing the old man’s wife asked him never to do was look in a old shoebox she kept on the top shelf of her closet.
Not thinking anything of it, the man never asked about its contents. He just figured it was one of those things… One day, when the old woman had fallen ill and didn’t have much longer to live, she called her husband to her hospital bed and told him it was time for him to take a look at the shoebox.
The old man went home, grabbed the box, and opened it. Inside, there were two crocheted dolls and bundles of money totaling $95,000!!
“But…why? How?!” he stuttered, totally mystified by the cash.
“Right before we got married,” the old woman told her astonished husband, “my grandmother told me the secret to a happy marriage was to never argue. She said if I ever got angry with you, I should keep quiet and crochet a doll.”
The old man was touched. There were only two dolls in the shoebox – she had only been angry with him two times over the course of their marriage. He scooped his wife up and gave her a kiss.
“But where did the money come from?” He asked her.
“Oh, that?” She said with a smile, “that’s the money I made from selling the dolls.”
