Covid-19 taught us to be self-reliant: VP
THE Covid-19 pandemic, which forced governments across the world to shut down their economies in a manner that negatively impacted global trade, has taught Zimbabwe the need to strive to attain self-sufficiency, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said yesterday.
He however pointed out that now that infections had been put under control, though authorities remain highly cautious, Zimbabwe was exploring new innovations to drive production, productivity and initiatives to enhance value chains in order to grow the economy.
VP Chiwenga made the remarks during an interview with Expo 2020 Dubai media team after touring the Zimbabwe pavilion. He is in the UAE leading a team of five cabinet ministers at the expo, where he is also attending the Global Business Forum Africa (GBFA).
The Vice President attended the opening session of the GBFA, which started yesterday and ends today, running on the sidelines of Expo 2020 Dubai, which kicked off on October 1, 2020 and stretches until March 31, 2022.
He will address the forum this morning.
The pandemic disrupted global supply chains through various national restrictive measures aimed at curtailing its spread, including through lockdowns and banning of intercity travel, resulting in shortages of certain basic goods and services while pushing prices up.
VP Chiwenga said Covid-19 had a world-wide ravaging impact and that Zimbabwe was not spared, which forced the country to adopt stringent hybrid mitigation measures, since March last year, when the first case of the pandemic was detected in the country.
“We had to take our own measures, blend them with WHO (World Health Organisation) measures, which had been put in place; that is social distancing, masking up, sanitising and for people to stay at home if they had no business at all,” he said.
This helped to control the disease, but like many other countries worldwide, Zimbabwe continued to be battered by waves of new infections.
When the initial measures instituted by the Government proved insufficient, the Vice President said, the authorities rolled out a massive vaccination programme, also putting emphasis on port entry, tourist resorts and key economic areas, which he said was crucial.
“I am happy to say that in one of the Seven Wonders of the World (Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe), we have achieved 100 percent herd immunity, and in most economic areas, we have achieved herd immunity; in border post areas and hot spot areas, which had been affected.
“We continuously educate our people to say the disease is still with us, it is not yet over. And we are now saying post Covid-19, we are in a new normal.
“What is that we do? We need now to continue to build our economy, to come up with new strategies because we have learned a lot of things during this period. (Due to Covid-19) movement between countries was very slow; so it taught us to be self-sufficient and produce on our own.
“Now, we have over 61 percent of our products (consumed in the country) produced by Zimbabwe, and on our (supermarket shelves), and we continue to grow that,” he said.