President Mnangagwa fleshes out 2030 vision
ECONOMIC development is at the centre of Zimbabwe’s new political dispensation as evidenced by multi-billion dollars investment commitments secured in the past five months which lay the ground for the creation of a middle income economy by 2030.
Addressing over 30 000 of Zanu-PF supporters at Murambinda B Primary School in Buhera on Saturday, President Mnangagwa said his administration opened up Zimbabwe to both local and international investors to ensure the country catches up with the rest of the world.
In this regard, President Mnangagwa said during his visit to China earlier this year, he had secured US$680 million for the construction of Kunzvi Dam and funding for Zimbabwe’s share of the Batoka power project with Zambia, which would generate 2 400 megawatts.
He said Government had released funding for Marovanyati Dam project to be completed by December. In the next five years, President Mnangagwa, said Zimbabwe should be exporting electricity to the region and not importing.
“Now we are talking the language of economic development. Wealth creation is what we aim to do. People must be rewarded for the work they do,” said President Mnangagwa.
“In the mining sector, there is a platinum mining giant that we signed a US$5,2 billion agreement with two days ago. Another platinum agreement worth US$4,2 billion was also signed. We are now talking of billion dollar agreements only! For us to develop our country and economy, we need both inside and outside investments,” he said.
“I am happy to tell you that local business people are responding massively. They are now expanding their businesses, creating employment. We shall continue that way as these projects unfold. We want more and more jobs for our youths and young women.”
President Mnangagwa said his administration had come up with a broad economic programme to transform the country in the shortest time possible.
He said the programme cuts across all sectors of the economy.
“I now say to you, we must work hard to develop our country ourselves,” said President Mnangagwa.
“We must make sure that we develop our country to catch up with the rest of the developing countries in the world. We have given ourselves as the new dispensation 12 years. In 12 years time, we shall be a middle income country in Sadc,” he said.
“What this means is that our economy will have developed so that we can have primary health care that is accessible to all. We should have an education system accessible to all and no child must travel more than five kilometres to go to school,” said President Mnangagwa.
He said programmes had been laid out to achieve those goals in 12 years.
“We can’t do it alone. We cannot achieve the development that we want if we go it alone. Yes, God has blessed this country and we can reclaim our breadbasket of Sadc status, the breadbasket of the continent. We also have lots of valuable minerals. Here in Manicaland we have gold, we have diamonds in Marange,” said the President.
“We have companies that are coming to exploit those minerals for the betterment of our people. For us to rapidly grow our economy, we need foreign direct investment. We want to have lines of credit from other countries,” he said.
President Mnangagwa continued: “If we look at cotton production, only 30 percent of our produce is used locally in terms of beneficiation. The other 70 percent we are exporting in its raw form. We now have companies that are coming to build factories to ensure that we complete the value chain from production, beneficiation up to marketing.
“In the same way, we are also looking at infrastructure, our roads countrywide. We want to dualise and widen them so that our roads can talk to the roads of South Africa and roads in Botswana and Zambia. We need electricity. Currently we have a deficiency but with the programmes that we have, in three years we should be able to sell electricity.”
The President stressed that in him, Zimbabwe was in safe hands and set on a new trajectory.
“With all this happening, you can easily see, we have a grip on how to develop our country. The country is in good hands and we are on a development path. Government is now focused on economics first, politics second. We aim for a better welfare for families,” President Mnangagwa said.
“We have opened up Zimbabwe to embrace new friends. For 18 years, we have been isolated as a result of us getting back our land, land reform. We are happy that we have completed our land reform. Now we are opening up to embrace the international community. We embrace those who want to work with us,” he said. —