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Mukudzei Chingwere

Herald Reporter

Cabinet has received and adopted the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) performance report for the fourth quarter of 2022 which indicates that Government exceeded the set economic development targets, thus priming the economy for the achievement of an upper middle income economy by 2030.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube presented the progress report whose details will now be shared with key important financial institutions like the World Bank for third party validation.

Inspired by his quest to bring rapid sustainable economic development to the populace, President Mnangagwa has set Zimbabwe on a development trajectory through which the economy is set to attain upper middle income status by the end of this decade.

Several economic pillars from agriculture, mining, tourism to the manufacturing sector have been set individual sectoral targets that will feed into the broader national economic target as set by the President.

Despite the period in which Zimbabwe is seeking to foster development having coincided with Covid-19 headwinds which have slowed down global economies, including the usually resilient in the First World, has ensured that Zimbabwe rises above these challenges.

The mining sector, which is expected to play an important midwifery role towards vision 2030, registered a commendable 10 percent growth, buoyed by the flow of capital back into the economy which has seen both green and brown mining projects taking shape.

The 10 percent jump is quite significant for Zimbabwe’s largest export earning sector which in 2017 was worth about US$2,7 billion and is now on course to get to US$12 billion this year.

Acting Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfan Muswere updated the nation on the successes of the NDS1 during a post-Cabinet briefing yesterday.

“Cabinet received and adopted the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) performance report for the fourth quarter of 2022,” said Minister Muswere.

“Cabinet is reminding the nation that following the launch of the NDS1 in October 2020, implementation commenced in 2021, under the 14 thematic working groups (TWG) that were created to drive the programme and achieve set targets.

“Under the Economic Growth and Stability TWG, the nation is being informed that the NDS1 target for inflation in the Fourth Quarter of 2022 was 26,3 percent.

“Government tightened the monetary and fiscal policy stance, maintained Central Bank accommodation rates at 200 percent and ordered a review of the public procurement process to ensure value for money payments to contractors.

“The budget deficit declined from an NDS1 target of 1,65 percent to 0,9 percent, reflecting conformity with the SADC macroeconomic convergence criterion of fiscal deficits below three percent.

“On health and well-being. Government is prioritising the capacity of village health workers to promote early maternity bookings and delivery in health institutions.

“Government is making concerted efforts to address the conditions of service of health care workers and the proportion of occupationally exposed workers is also being monitored, and is well on target,” said Minister Muswere.

He said gold production in 2022 improved to 36 tonnes, from 31,5 tonnes in 2021 and construction of gold service centres such as Makaha in Mutoko made significant progress and the manufacturing sector grew to 66 percent, surpassing the year’s target of 65 percent.

“The nation is being informed that under the Food and Nutrition Security TWG, milk production was boosted by the increase in the dairy herd from 22 000 to 38 000.

“In the water sub-sector, Government procured additional rigs and drilled 437 boreholes, surpassing the fourth quarter target of 240 boreholes.

“On housing delivery, financiers and other stakeholders are preparing to commence preliminary works on the smart cities pilot projects for Melfort, Figtree and Chirundu.

“77.5 percent households are now accessing clean and safe water; and 63,8 hectares was  allocated for the settlements densification programme.

“Innovation hubs and industrial parks increased significantly during the Fourth

Quarter of 2022.  In particular, Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences established a state-of-the-art Agro-Innovation Industrial Park on the Headlands Farm. The Midlands State University’s National Pathology and Diagnostic Centre was operationalised.

“The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission received 255 complaints and finalised 186 cases, while 69 were at various stages of investigations.

“Conflict cases encompassed land and boundary disputes, malicious damage to property, assault, rape and unfair trial and detention,” said Minister Muswere.

Explaining economic development amid grumbling from other quarters, Prof Ncube said a country’s economic process could not be measured on money in people’s pockets alone.

He said there are several infrastructural development projects and community development projects that have taken shape and their reflection in people’s pockets is not an overnight project.

In the water sub-sector, Government procured additional rigs and drilled 437 boreholes, surpassing the 4th target of 240 boreholes and now 77,5 percent households are now accessing clean and safe water.

Milk production was boosted by the increase in the dairy herd from 22 000 to 38 000 and 400 kilometres of the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway was upgraded and opened to traffic, also 19 airlines were flying into Zimbabwe by the end of 2022.

“First of all, we did not share this document with the world bank about the positive developments we have experienced in the last six months of last year, so now that it has now been approved by Cabinet we will share with them and they can update their data.

“The economy is not just inflation, the economy is about clean water, is about good roads, is about job creation, is about growth in the mining sector, the economy is real. I can assure you that there are a lot of our citizens who are experiencing the use of good roads as they drive, who are also experiencing fresh and clean water in rural areas.

“Citizens who actually experienced a very successful Covid-19 vaccination programme,” said Minister Ncube.

He said on inflation Zimbabwe because we have a dual currency base, US and ZWL, it cannot measure effective inflation on the back of one or the other currency.

“That is why we have adopted the weighted average as a more accurate reflection of what inflation is in this country,” said Minister Ncube.