All set for US$9bn blueprint launch

planning and national budgeting.

Cabinet approved the plan in May, having rejected it the first time it was tabled for consideration on the grounds that Government did not have resources to bankroll it.
The Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, which crafted the plan, said the MTP would be launched in Harare today.
“Through the Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, the Government is introducing the MTP, crafted by Zimbabweans. The MTP aims to harness all wealth and wealth-creating opportunities to benefit and elevate the status of all Zimbabweans,” said the ministry.

Senior Government officials, private and public sector representatives, civic organisations, business groups and representatives of other countries and international agencies will attend the event.
The blueprint requires US$9 billion to implement over the period 2011-2015 and the funding would come from domestic and external sources.

It is expected that funding would come from a sovereign wealth fund, domestic investment, pension funds, Govern-ment assets and restructured parastatals, private equity investment in existing firms and foreign investment.

Public Private Partnerships are also expected to make available funding to support the plan.
In May, Economic Planning Minister Tapiwa Mashakada said the MTP targeted economic growth of seven percent and employment creation at six percent a year.

The economic blueprint is focused on six major themes: The vision, national economic development strategy, macro-economic framework, key economic enablers and the implementation framework of the policy.
The policy document has three major goals: Economic transformation, orienting economy to export-led growth and creating economic clusters in the manufacturing sector based on production and job creation.

There is also extensive reference on the roles of tourism, mining and the financial services sector in realising the desired economic targets.
Minister Mashakada said the MTP enunciates 11 national priorities centred on infrastructure development, employment creation, human-centred development, entrepreneurial development and macro-economic growth.

The policy also emphasises reduction of the current account deficit to five percent of Gross Domestic Product, achieving foreign exchanges reserves of at least three months cover, ICT and science, investment promotion, resource utilisation, gender mainstreaming and indigenisation, among others.

Specific key enablers targeted include energy, transport (dualisation of the Chirundu-BeitBridge road, rural and urban trunk roads), rail infrastructure, restructuring of Air Zimbabwe, water and sanitation and housing.
The blueprint is based on the model of a developmental state and borrowed extensively from the experiences of Brazil, India, Russia and China.

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