By Engineer Jacob Kudzayi Mutisi
Zimbabwe cannot continue to educate, train and export some of its best brains to the rest of the world while the country struggles to develop with the people it has invested in.
This is not an argument against Zimbabweans working abroad. Our professionals should be free to seek opportunities anywhere in the world. What is Zimbabwe doing to ensure that when our best engineers, doctors, scientists, ICT specialists, academics, entrepreneurs and other professionals leave, they remain economically and intellectually connected to home?
Zimbabwe has a small population, but it is exceptionally rich in natural resources. We therefore cannot afford to lose the very people who possess the knowledge and expertise required to transform those resources into industries, products, technologies and jobs.
Why don’t we learn from China? Zimbabwe and China have developed a strong friendship and increasingly deep cooperation in education, vocational training, technology and industrial development. In fact, the two countries are already expanding cooperation in skills development, technology transfer and talent cultivation.
But we should go further. China has demonstrated the importance of deliberately creating systems that attract, support and reconnect with talent abroad. For example, Chinese policies have provided incentives for overseas-trained professionals to return and establish businesses, undertake research and participate in innovation. Shanghai currently has specific policies supporting overseas returnees, including assistance for entrepreneurship, technology transfer, research cooperation and access to services.
The lesson Zimbabwe should take is not to copy China blindly. It is to copy the principle, build a system in which national development and personal opportunity reinforce each other.
Leaving Zimbabwe should not mean losing Zimbabwe. Imagine a Zimbabwean engineer working in Britain, a doctor working in Australia, an ICT specialist working in America or a scientist working in China.
Instead of considering that person “lost”, Zimbabwe should ask, How can we continue to use that person’s knowledge, investment, networks and experience for Zimbabwe’s development?
A national diaspora talent system could allow professionals abroad to:
* register their skills and areas of expertise;
* mentor Zimbabwean students and young professionals remotely;
* participate in national research and industrial projects;
* invest in Zimbabwean businesses;
* provide technical consultancy to local companies;
* establish companies or joint ventures in Zimbabwe;
* teach periodically at universities and technical colleges;
* transfer technology and international standards;
* participate in infrastructure and resource-development projects; and
* eventually return home with a clear pathway into employment, business or public service.
China’s experience shows that attracting overseas talent requires more than asking people to come home. There must be an ecosystem waiting for them.
Zimbabwe needs a “Talent at Home” system. I believe Zimbabwe should establish a National Diaspora Talent and Investment Programme.
Every Zimbabwean professional leaving the country should leave knowing,”Zimbabwe still has a place for me.”
That place could be a business opportunity, research project, university position, industrial project, consultancy, investment opportunity or future public-service role.
The Government could create a central digital platform linking the diaspora with ministries, universities, polytechnics, industry, SMEs and investors.
This would change the question from,”How do we stop Zimbabweans from leaving?”
to “How do we ensure Zimbabwe benefits from Zimbabweans wherever they are?”.That is a much more practical approach.
Our minerals need our brains. Zimbabwe has gold, lithium, platinum, diamonds, chrome, coal and many other resources. But possessing resources does not automatically create prosperity. The real value comes from knowledge, technology, engineering, research, manufacturing and innovation.
Why should Zimbabwe export lithium and then import sophisticated lithium-related products? Why should we export minerals without developing stronger local processing and manufacturing capabilities?
Why should Zimbabwe possess highly educated engineers and scientists while importing expertise for projects that Zimbabweans could eventually design, manage and execute themselves?
Natural resources without human capital can become a curse. Natural resources combined with human capital can become the foundation of an industrial economy.
This is where China can become an even greater partner. The relationship between Zimbabwe and China provides an opportunity to build something much bigger than scholarships and exchanges.
Zimbabwe should seek structured programmes involving Chinese universities, research institutions and companies that transfer knowledge, technology, manufacturing capability and management expertise to Zimbabweans.
The recent establishment of the China-Zimbabwe Engineering Technology Academy and the China-Zimbabwe Silk Road Teacher Capacity-Building Center at Harare Polytechnic demonstrates that this type of cooperation is already moving in that direction.
The next step should be to make the relationship produce Zimbabwean-owned capability.
We should train Zimbabweans not merely to operate imported technology, but eventually to design it, manufacture it, improve it and export it.
We have the numbers to transform the country. Zimbabwe does not have a population of hundreds of millions. That should actually be an advantage.
If Zimbabwe developed a functioning national system for identifying its best engineers, scientists, ICT specialists, entrepreneurs, academics and technicians both at home and abroad we could potentially coordinate this relatively small pool of talent towards clearly defined national projects.
One successful engineer can create a company.
One successful ICT entrepreneur can create hundreds of jobs.
One scientist can develop a new industrial process.
One outstanding agricultural specialist can transform an entire farming value chain.
One group of engineers can develop technology that saves millions of dollars in imports.
Every solution has the potential to move Zimbabwe another level forward. We therefore need to stop measuring our human capital only by how many people remain inside our borders.
Our national talent is global. Zimbabwe’s challenge is to turn its global talent into national advantage.
Copy the system, not the country. There is nothing wrong with Zimbabwe learning from countries that have solved problems we are still struggling with.
We copied many systems from Britain.
We adopted technologies developed elsewhere.
We use international banking, telecommunications, education and engineering standards.
So why should we not study the systems China has developed to attract and reconnect with its overseas talent?
China itself has historically recognised the importance of protecting and supporting returned overseas Chinese and their families, while more recent policies have focused heavily on attracting international and overseas talent.
This is not about Zimbabwe becoming China. It is about becoming a better Zimbabwe by learning what works elsewhere.
Zimbabwe’s relationship with China gives us a unique opportunity to do precisely that. The country needs a new social contract with its educated population:
You may travel. You may work abroad. You may build an international career. But Zimbabwe must remain part of your future and Zimbabwe must create a system that makes coming back, investing back and contributing back worthwhile.
We cannot keep exporting our best brains and then importing the expertise to replace them.
Zimbabwe’s greatest resource may not be underneath the ground. It may be the Zimbabwean brain.