Story by Stanley James, Business Editor
Zimbabwe received over US$500 million in development partner assistance during the first nine months of the year in a show of confidence in government economic policies.
Statistics compiled by Treasury gleaned by the ZBC News Tuesday reveal bilateral support was at over US$400 million, while multilateral partners also contributed more than US$110 million.
The health sector accounted for the bulk of the support followed by agriculture, education, energy, manufacturing and value addition as well as water and sanitation, trade policies and regulations among others.
University of Zimbabwe Business School Director Professor Albert Makochekanwa and Economist Dr Zack Murerwa contend that development partner support is important in sustaining growth.
“Given the current state of the economy, it becomes imperative to focus on key deliverables to the economy and that entails the need to boost development to the marginalized societies against limited fiscal space. It therefore becomes important for the country to further focus on more opportunities to attract development financiers,” Dr Makochekanwa said.
Mr Murerwa also stated, “Such financing is highly critical in sustaining economic needs taking into account the importance of financing projects in line with devolution agenda that has entailed the need to reengage and engage the development partners in line with consolidating economic gains.”
In a show of commitment to working with development partners, government last week held discussions with global financiers on modalities to clear the external debt overhang and unlock more opportunities for capital inflows.
