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Farirai Machivenyika Harare Bureau
There is considerable progress in the implementation of government’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation despite the challenges affecting the economy, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said yesterday.
Presenting a progress report on the implementation of Zim-Asset at the ongoing Zanu-PF 6th National People’s Congress, Cde Chinamasa said most sectors had recorded varying levels of growth this year.
“It’s clear that notwithstanding the many challenges which continue to confront government and the people of Zimbabwe, considerable progress has indeed been made in the implementation of the Zim-Asset economic development blueprint.
“The Zim-Asset Prioritised Action Plan for 2015 has been developed and will form the basis upon which to further accelerate the implementation of the Plan over the coming 12-month period,” he said.
Cde Chinamasa said crop production improved in 2014 due to government’s input support to small holder farmers and good rains.
The country produced 1,680,293 metric tonnes of cereals and 996,424 metric tonnes of other food crops like groundnuts, beans and potatoes.
Cde Chinamasa said wheat production was expected to increase from 41,000 metric tonnes to 58,598 metric tonnes while tobacco production rose by 30 percent from 166 million kilogrammes in 2013 to 216,1 million kilogrammes this year.
“The National Cattle Herd registered a 2,3 percent increase from 5,241,192 to 5,368,105 for the 2013/2014 agricultural season, while beef slaughters declined by 7 percent,” he said.
He added that a new cattle breeding and semen producing laboratory was established.
On poultry, the minister said a 38 percent increase was registered in day old chicks production from the 64,4 million chicks produced last year resulting in an increase of 400,000 tonnes in poultry meat products.
“About 50 million dozen eggs were produced up from 24,6 million dozen in 2013,” Cde Chinamasa said.
On infrastructure development, Cde Chinamasa said progress had been made in some key projects that included construction of a hostel block, kitchen and dining hall at Lupane State University, servicing of stands in major urban areas while government has entered into joint venture housing projects with CBZ and the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe.
“The country’s major hospitals have been retooled with state of the art theatre equipment procured under the $89 million loan facility secured from China Exim Bank. The equipment procured, of which a large part is still to be delivered, include theatre tables, high definition theatre lights, anaesthetic machines, CT Scan machines, magnetic resonance imaging machines, dialysis machines and their consumables, ultra sound machines, digital X-ray machines, oxygen generating machines, baby incubators and 11 ambulances,” he said.
Cde Chinamasa said the equipment would significantly reduce medical costs while major operations like open heart surgery and kidney transplants may be done locally.
The Minister added that government had constructed 22 primary and 34 secondary schools across the country while over 180 others were being rehabilitated.
Cde Chinamasa also said the Plumtree-Harare-Mutare highway was 95 percent complete while tenders for the construction of 14 other major highways are being considered under the Build Operate and Transfer scheme.
He said the extension of Kariba South Hydro Power Station and Hwange Thermal Power Station was ongoing under loan facilities obtained from China.
Cde Chinamasa said the Chinese had also extended a loan facility for the rehabilitation of Morton Jaffray Water Works in Harare while Zim Fund had also provided funding for rehabilitation of water works in other urban areas.
He said the liquidity crunch that had been caused by the failure to access long term lines of credit as a result of the illegal sanctions imposed on the country have posed a challenge to turning around the economy.
Cde Chinamasa said the country’s GDP was expected to grow by 3,1 percent this year due to growth in agriculture (23,4 percent), tourism (3,9 percent), electricity and water (3,5 percent) although mining, manufacturing and real estate have declined by 2,1 percent, 4,9 percent and 1,7 percent respectively.
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