President opens 5th session of Parliament President Mnangagwa gives his State of the Nation Address yesterday.

Herald Reporter

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has officially opened the Fifth Session of the 9th Parliament of Zimbabwe at the majestic New Parliament Building in Mt Hampden calling on legislators to speedily pass outstanding bills.

In his address to the nation, the President, who is also the Commander in Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, charged Parliament to play its role in accelerating the country’s social and economic development.

“The Session comes ahead of the 2023 Harmonised General Elections. Parliament is, therefore, expected to accelerate the completion of the matters on the legislative agenda in line with the expectations of the electorate,” he said.

The President, in his State of the Nation Address, spelled out achievements of the Second Republic as the country continue to make huge strides towards attaining Vision 2030, to become an upper-middle class economy by 2030.

“The period since my last address to this Parliament has seen unprecedented socio-economic growth as well as the accelerated implementation of the National Development Strategy 1, tight monetary and fiscal policy measures to stabilise the economy and curtail speculative borrowing and other rent-seeking behaviour, are bearing fruit,” said the President.

President Mnangagwa stands at attention while the national anthem is played at the new Parliament building in Mt Hampden today

Policy measures introduced by Government have since arrested inflation, bringing the once elusive price stability, a status that the President said every Zimbabwean should guard jealously.

The policy measures include the introduction of gold coins valued at $9.5 which have been sold to the public, helping bring inflation which in September significantly declined to 3.5 percent from 12.4 percent in August, 2022.

“Every Zimbabwean must jealously guard this stability. Meanwhile, foreign currency earnings amounted to US$7.7 billion for the 8 months up to 31st August, 2022. This reflects a 32.4 period increase from the US$5.8 billion recorded over the corresponding period in 2021”.

Similar growth has also been witnessed in the agriculture sector where this year the Presidential Input Programme is targeting 3 million farmers for enhanced production of cereals, oilseeds and legumes.

Mining and tourism sectors have also recorded notable growth with the manufacturing sector on the rebound as industrial capacity utilisation has exceeded 66 percent in 2022, up from 47 percent in 2020.

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