Call to align investment plans to MTP

yesterday, VP Mujuru said it was important to take stock of the progress made since its launch almost a year and half ago.
She lauded the Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Ministry for co-ordinating sector working groups that were involved in the moni­toring and evaluation of MTP imple­mentation process.

“This (launch) is a demonstration that as a nation we have moved away from shelving quality economic blue­prints in our offices after their launch.
“This annual progress report is a product of consultations among Gov­ernment, the private sector and our partners,” she said.
MTP is Zimbabwe’s economic blue print setting out policies and pro­grammes to be implemented between 2011 and 2015.

Its thrust is to maintain macro-eco­nomic stability, restore and transform the country’s capacity to produce goods.
The major objectives include sustain­able economic growth, development and transformation, poverty reduction, employment creation, price stability and sustainable balance of payments position.

VP Mujuru said the 2013 budget process should be guided by the MTP and said the coming budget should mobilise more resources to agriculture.
“We need more investment in agri­culture. It is the mainstay of our econ­omy; in fact we had to revise our eco­nomic growth rate from 9,4 percent to 5,6 percent because of poor agricultural performance.”

She said the MTP was a homegrown economic solution unlike previous pro­grammes that were drawn and inspired by foreign institutions.
“The Esaps were not adequately funded by medium to long term sus­tainable financing and did not achieve much for Africa but MTP has improved the state of our economy to date,” she said.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said any developmental model must be based on the natural resources a coun­try has.