The future is bright

WHILE the country has been g r app l i ng w i t h challenges in its endeavour to turn around the economy, what is clear is that the future is bright.

What is important is to consider that the state of the economy had taken a massive deep over the years and it needed some serious interventions for fundamentals to go back into place, and yes, the direction that the Government has taken thus far is more than convincing.

More so, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has come out in the open saying it has been impressed by President Mnangagwa’s economic plan, which has already seen Treasury recording a budget surplus of over $29 million during the first two months of its subsistence.

The Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) — the policy blueprint expected to guide the country through December 2020 — which was announced by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube on October 5 this year, also has fundamental guidelines on the direction the country is taking.

Responding to an online question recently, IMF Fund director of communications, Mr Gerry Rice, said “the policies of the new administration under the Zimbabwe transition . . . do constitute a comprehensive stabilisation and reform effort”.

IMF and Zimbabwe, he said, are working on modalities of a new staff monitored programme meant to ensure that the country meets the fiscal targets it has set for itself under the TSP.

“We think the policies, to answer the question, the policies of the new administration under the Zimbabwe Transition and Stabilisation Programme, do constitute a comprehensive stabilisation and reform effort in order to address Zimbabwe’s macroeconomic situation. And, you know, we see it as a fairly ambitious programme that the authorities have requested the staff monitored programme,” said Mr Rice.

He, however, noted that the IMF can only work on a financial programme with Zimbabwe once the country strikes a deal with bilateral creditors and clears its arrears with other international financial institutions.

Last week, President Mnangagwa reiterated that the country has a bright future as Government has set in motion an array of policy initiatives to spur development in communities as part of its drive to create a middle-income economy by 2030.

The President said this while officiating at a cattle breeding programme and the opening of a science and computer laboratory at Gandauta Secondary School in Chiadzwa, Manicaland Province.

The two initiatives were sponsored by the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC), which is owned by the Government. The cattle breeding project targets communal farmers in the province.

“There is a brighter future in the country, better than where we are coming from. We understand the challenges that we are currently experiencing but in the new dispensation we have programmes meant to develop rural areas, including devolution. So things will change for the better soon,” said President Mnangagwa.

He said Government had set aside $310 million in the 2019 National Budget to be shared equally among the country’s 10 provinces.

President Mnangagwa said Government was also devolving authority to the provinces for them to manage their own affairs.