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Conrad Mupesa Mashonaland West Bureau
Mashonaland West is pushing economic development hard, with new Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Marian Chombo, who is among the new five Ministers of State recently appointed by President Mnangagwa, outlining the need to bolster the province’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The former Local Government and Public Works Deputy Minister is determined to push the province’s GDP higher so that Mashonaland West becomes the highest in the country.
Last year, the province was ranked third among the other nine provinces with its current GDP to date standing at US$2,7 billion, at a growth rate of four percent. It contributes at least 12,3 percent to the national GDP.
Mashonaland West is an agro-based province that produces at least 50 percent of the entire national grain, and 30 percent of Zimbabwe’s tobacco and is also strong in the mining sector where it produces platinum, gold, and chrome, among other small minerals.
“My responsibilities are to ensure that as a province we achieve the desired results of our Government guided by the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and the Vision 2020 of an upper-middle-income economy as espoused by President Mnangagwa.
“Therefore, my role is to lead in ensuring advocacy, coordination, monitoring, evaluation, and implementation of policies with priorities in the marketing of investment opportunities. I will also make sure that through departments within my office including economic affairs and investments, infrastructure planning, development, and environmental management as well as provincial coordination, that all Government policies and programmes are implemented at grassroots levels and communities own their community development programmes.”
She also believes that for the province to achieve its goals, there is a need to lure more investors.
“We need to bring more investors in the province and one area I would like to see improving is access to land for economic development being availed by our local authorities in a way that attracts more investors.”
The vast resources of the province needed to be fully exploited to increase GDP.
“Our contribution towards the national GDP is vast. To continue doing this and at the same time look at possible ways of increasing production, we will be looking at farming, mining, and tourism and see how these areas are improved in uplifting the lives of people in our province,” said Minister Chombo.
“And we need to come up with supporting policies that encourage value addition of everything we produce as a province so that we add value to our resources on the market.”
She also wants to collaborate with other Government officials and departments to achieve her objectives.
“As the Minister of State, it is necessary and prudent that I collaborate and complement with each and every person. I was appointed by President Mnangagwa for the purposes of superintending the implementation of appropriate urban infrastructure development policies and programmes in the province, and formulate the implementation of provincial economic plans from all Government ministries and departments in the province,” she added.
Coordination between Central Government, and provincial and local governments was critical for development that leaves no one and no place behind.
Online Reporter