Chinamasa to present budget. . . Cocktail of incentives to boost production likely to feature

Herald Bureau
FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa is expected to present the 2017 National Budget this afternoon largely oriented towards a cocktail of incentives to boost local production while encouraging foreign direct investment.

Minister Chinamasa’ s budget comes two days after President Mugabe delivered his State of the Nation Address, focusing on initiatives aimed at stimulating production in line with Zimbabwe Agenda for Socio-Economic Transformation and the 10-Point Plan

With little change expected regarding funds allocated to traditional expenditure areas due to tight fiscal space, giving incentives to boost production and investment are critical in driving growth, creating jobs and improving competitiveness.

In the same vein, Minister Chinamasa is expected to provide clarity on the pronouncement he made in 2016 Budget Review Statement on the restructuring of the civil service.

Zimbabweans will also expect to hear actions that the Government will take against abuse of bond notes amid reports of pricing discrepancies between the USD and bond notes.

Analysts and Zimbabweans in general said polices that strengthen the country’s competition landscape would help transform the economy into a vibrant export driven economy.

Already, Government has put in place some policy initiatives aimed at addressing issues relating to the supply side of the economy such as improving the cost of doing business.

About a month ago, President Mugabe passed into law, the Special Economic Zones Bill, a development that is expected to attract foreign direct investment and create thousands of jobs.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has also put in place production enhancement measures to support selected economic sectors including mining and agriculture.

As such, Minister Chinamasa is expected to come up with complementary policies to reinforce such initiatives. It is also expected that the budget will propose measures to support and increase exports and inflows of foreign currency to ease liquidity problems.