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President Mnangagwa yesterday officially opened the 17th zanu-pf Annual National People’s Conference here with a refreshing and rejuvenating speech that sets the country’s economy on a robust recovery path towards the realisation of an upper middle income economy by 2030.
The conference was the first to be addressed by President Mnangagwa in his capacity as the ruling party’s First Secretary and President since his election at an Extraordinary Congress held last year.
Billed as a potentially epoch-shaping indaba, one that would see the revolutionary party reconnecting with its founding values and redirecting discourse towards economic development ahead of intraparty fights, yesterday’s opening did not disappoint.
Peace, unity, and economic development were President Mnangawa’s key messages to the delegates, who were kept glued to the proceedings by scintillating revolutionary musical interludes.
Clad in Zanu-PF colours, the delegates started streaming in as early as 6:00am and the unrelentingly scorching morning sun of Matabeleland South failed to dampen the mood of the scores of delegates queueing at security checkpoints for screening.
Themed “Zimbabwe is Open for Business: Peace, Unity towards an upper middle income economy by 2030”, the conference was characterised by economic debates as outlined by President Mnangagwa in his opening speech.
Opening the conference, President Mnangagwa said: “Our country has immense growth potential embedded in every sector of our economy. Through a protracted liberation struggle, we attained our political independence and subsequently our land. It is critical that we use that land to develop our agriculture and maintain the food self-sufficiency we currently enjoy.
“The ongoing audit by the Land Commission should result in more land being availed for further redistribution.”
President Mnangagwa reiterated that Government would continue to support farmers through the Command Agriculture programme and the Presidential Input Support Scheme.
With regards to manufacturing and mining sectors, President Mnangagwa said: “The manufacturing sector is steadily growing and capacity utilisation has now risen over to 50 percent. This has seen the opening of up and expansion of various manufacturing companies throughout our provinces.
“The mining sector continues to rapidly grow. Last year, we achieved 24 tonnes and to date we have already exceeded the 30 tonne-mark for gold production. Our small-scale mining sector continues to anchor the growth of the sector.”
President Mnangagwa said Government was also leveraging on local resources and skills to develop infrastructure such as roads and rail network.
In this regard, he said several roads across the country were being rehabilitated.
“The Beitbridge Border Post and the Beitbridge-Victoria Falls road are also set to be modernised,” said President Mnangagwa.
Online Reporter