Government has produced a draft economic blueprint - the Zimbabwe Programme for Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIMPSET), which is expected to boost Zimbabwe's economic recovery and growth, deputy chief secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet Retried Colonel Christian Katsande has said.
Speaking on the sidelines after the just-ended strategic retreat workshop for the Office of the President and Cabinet in Harare on Friday, Rtd Col Katsande who is responsible for policy formulation, analysis and coordination said the country should be able to transform not only in terms of economic growth trajectory, but in the quality of service to be delivered to the people.
"President Mugabe outlined his vision for Zimbabwe in the post election era through the Chief Secretary to President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda. We came up with a team that will develop through a consultative process the draft ZIMPSET from 2013 to 2015," said Rtd Col Katsande.
He said several stakeholders among them business, bankers and farmer organisations were consulted.
"He (President) clearly outlined the central position that was going to be given to mining and agriculture sector, which is the backbone of the economy and the need to address the infrastructure development," Rtd Col Katsande said.
"The key objectives of this blueprint is to boost economic recovery and also to attend to service delivery."
Rtd Col Katsande said Government was looking at the need for investment in sustainable and robust solutions to address the challenges of food insecurity, undernourishment, improving of production and export of goods, value added goods and services.
"We are also looking at the building and rehabilitation of infrastructure and the various utilities, which underpin economic growth. We are looking at accessibility of utilisation of ICT's that have a link with economic growth to improve service delivery."
Rtd Col Katsande noted that it was agreed that the energy sector is key in moving the nation forward. "We have to push all projects under the energy sector because they have an impact on the various other sectors of the economy. Everything hinges on adequate energy supplies," Rtd Col Katsande said.
He said the blueprint would increase economic opportunities for women, youths and the physically challenged within the context of the indigenisation and empowerment and employment creation thrust.
"We also want to address some of the systematic institutional capacity weaknesses we have and by addressing those we should foster a spirit of collaboration and partnership among Government's agencies," Rtd Col Katsande said.
The blueprint, he said, would also focus on acceleration of public-private-partnership to fund economic revival and infrastructural development.
Rtd Col Katsande said the draft blueprint has been distributed to different ministries.
"Next week we will have a consultative workshop to consider this document after all the input has come from ministers and officials. It can be pushed through the Cabinet policy process so that it can hopefully be adopted," he said.
Rtd Col Katsande said the blueprint should be implemented starting this September to the first quarter of 2014 while the rest of the programme is expected to be implemented between the first quarter 2014 and December 2015.
He said in 2016 Government would put in place a medium-term plan.
- herald
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