Editorial Comment: Economic blueprint key to nation’s turnaround strategy

THE adoption by Cabinet of the Government’s economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset), paves way for the immediate implementation of the plan which will guide the turnaround and development of the economy for the next five years.
This means that the nation can now operationalise the blueprint that is aligned to Zanu-PF’s winning election manifesto, President Mugabe’s inauguration speech and his address to Parliament when he officially opened the First Session of the Eighth Parliament. Following the approval by Cabinet on Tuesday, Government can now move to implement it in line with fulfilling the people’s expectations and we are confident that the plan will be the panacea to the nation’s economic woes.

The economic plan, which will run from October 2013 to December 2018, is essentially a sanctions-busting instrument to be funded locally and expectations are that it will ride on the full exploitation of and value addition to the country’s natural resources. It also projects that the economy will grow by an average of 7.3 percent, improve by 3,4 percent in 2013, 6,1 percent in 2014 and continue on an upward growth trajectory to 9.9 percent by 2018. This is achievable given that Zim Asset is premised on a cluster-based plan broken down into food security and nutrition, social services and poverty reduction, infrastructure and utilities and value addition and beneficiation. It will work by fully exploiting the internal relationships and linkages that exist between the various facets of the economy.

The two sub-clusters of fiscal reform measures and public administration, governance and performance management will ensure the smooth implantation of the economic plan by providing the necessary financial resources and creating a conducive environment to formulate, implement, monitor and evaluate the economic plan. Some initiatives identified under each cluster will be implemented immediately to yield rapid results in the shortest possible timeframe (October 2013-2015) with the other deliverables targeted up to 2018.
Short term interventions include intensifying the importation of maize from Zambia to mitigate hunger and providing food relief to needy families from GMB stocks.

Government will also set up an Agribank concessionary funding facility for A2 farmers while a livestock drought mitigation programme for drier regions will also be put in place. “In order to ensure that the plan is fully funded, the following, inter-alia, have been identified as financing mechanisms; tax and non-tax revenue, leveraging and mobilisation of domestic resources, issuance of bonds, accelerated implementation of public private partnerships, mobilisation of remittances from the Diaspora, securitisation of State Assets, re-engagement with the international and multilateral finance institutions and other financing options, such as the BRICS,’’ said Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, while presenting the document to Cabinet.

Zim Asset recognises that Zimbabwe has been under sanctions for close to 13 years and these have cost the country more than $42 billion in revenue shrinking the economy by over 40 percent with deleterious effects on jobs and livelihoods. It says the manufacturing sector remained in crisis situation with capacity utilization declining from an average of 57 percent in 2011, 44 percent in 2012 and 39 percent in the third quarter of 2013. But under, Zim Asset, Government has come up with measures to mitigate these problems.

To ensure food security and nutrition, Government will establish financial support for agriculture so that farmers increase production, productivity and product quality. It will also recapitalize Agribank and the Grain Marketing Board while the Presidential Input Scheme would also continue at household and communal level. On Social Services and Poverty Reduction, Zim Asset would ride on the opportunities of the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Programme for the funding of public utilities in communities such as schools, hospitals and housing.

Government also intends to rehabilitate, upgrade and develop the national grid, road and railway network, water storage, supply and sanitation buildings as well as Information Communication Technology-related infrastructure.

The blueprint also prioritizes optimal power generation, the production and use of bio-fuels as enablers for economic productivity and growth. On value addition and beneficiation, the document says all primary products across sectors were expected to create more value through processing and beneficiation. Given the country’s abundant mineral resources, Government expected the sector to contribute immensely to the Gross Domestic Product.

In essence, the economic blueprint is a well thought out document that will address most of the major challenges confronting the nation. We urge all stakeholders, particularly the line ministries, to fully implement it for the benefit of the nation. This is the starting point for the new Government to begin fulfilling the promises it made to the people and it will require the buy in of everyone to ensure it is successfully implemented.

We implore all Government departments to work hand in glove with the Office of the President and Cabinet – the lead agency in the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the plan – to operationalise the economic blueprint.