Story by Farai Gwaze
Government is set to implement provincial economic development plans as part of efforts to accelerate national economic growth in line with the vision of an upper middle-income society by 2030.
The Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Engineer Tafadzwa Muguti laid out the roadmap for the implementation of the approved plans.
“We would like to see each province have a provincial GDP. We would like to see each province have a provincial production index. What are you producing in your province? We would like to see each province having a provincial employment index. Within the quarter that you are reporting in, how many jobs have you created? Most importantly we want to introduce a provincial poverty index as the GDP is increasing, we want to see a decline in poverty. We are also introducing a provincial investment index, currently, we have been focusing on foreign direct investment that is going to change. We also want to look at local investments, even social investments by government,” he said.
Engineer Muguti also emphasised the need for local authorities and district officials to work together with ministers of state for provincial affairs and devolution.
“We are concerned about the lack of spatial planning. There is a correlation between economic and spatial planning. You cannot plan to have any economic activity if you do not have control over the land and what is now happening in rural-to-urban migration, is a worrying trend because it is now eroding the value and livelihood for those who are poor and in marginalised areas. We are seeing that local authorities and district officials are not playing ball, in terms of working with the minister of state in terms of planning and that is a big concern for us. The level of corruption, especially at district level across all provinces is really worrying and is now a security threat for us,” he added.
This initiative is part of Zimbabwe’s broader economic development blueprint, which includes the National Development Plan 1 (NDS 1) which runs up to next year and NDS2 from 2026 to 2030.
