The Sunday News
IN the foreword to the National Development Strategy 1 document, President Mnangagwa emphasised that the NDS1 is premised on four critical guiding principles.
“The first is a recognition that bold and transformative measures are required to underpin the drive towards the attainment of our Vision 2030. Slow and incremental change will not deliver the transformation that the people of Zimbabwe deserve. Secondly, it is clear that, while we continue to make headway with our international re-engagement efforts, which in time will yield positive results, we must intensify our efforts to generate growth through intentional mobilisation of domestic growth vectors. To this end, the NDS1 must attend to the development and capacitation of key national institutions, which will create the enabling environment critical for transformative economic growth.
“Further, let me re-emphasise that Zimbabwe is open for business to all investors, foreign and domestic, including Zimbabweans in the diaspora. Thirdly, the NDS1 must deliberately leverage Zimbabwe’s competitive advantages particularly with regards to the configuration of our natural resource endowment, our excellent ecological endowment and our skills base. Finally, for transformative and inclusive growth to bring benefits to all Zimbabweans in a fair, transparent and just manner, we must deepen our commitment to the tenets of good corporate governance as enunciated in our Vision 2030 document.”
And true to the President’s word, the country has moved in the right trajectory and massive work has been done to ensure that the country achieves Vision 2030. Last week, our sister paper, The Herald, reported that more than 3 000 projects across Zimbabwe have been implemented by Government over the past four years, transforming the lives of millions of people both in rural and urban areas in line with the objectives of NDS1 enunciated by the Second Republic under the leadership of President Mnangagwa.
The Herald said projects range from community schemes with a huge impact on ordinary people to the flagship projects critical to the achievement of the vision of Zimbabwe, resonating well with the mantra “leaving no one and no place behind”.
The Minister of State for Presidential Affairs in charge of Monitoring and Implementation of Government Programmes, Dr Jorum Gumbo, outlined the developmental projects being implemented by the Second Republic in an update.
Minister Jorum Gumbo on projects
“The advent of the Second Republic has, in a record short space of four years, seen the implementation of more than 3 000 life-changing projects that are designed to enhance the livelihoods of the citizenry. The projects are in tandem with the Second Republic’s mantra of leaving no one and no place behind. The initiatives vary in scope from community projects which are tailored to directly impact on the ordinary citizens and communities, to flagship projects that are critical to achieve the Vision of becoming an Upper Middle Income Society by 2030.
“During the period 2018 to 2020, a total of 1 688 projects were implemented while in 2021 alone, 1 388 projects were implemented. A combined 1 523 projects were completed during the period 2018 to 2021.
The projects are already yielding tangible benefits to the citizenry. Some of the long-term projects have recorded major milestones and citizens are already benefiting directly or indirectly,” the Minister was quoted as saying.
Beneficiaries of these people-centred projects cut across the social strata to include the general public, previously marginalised groups such as women, youths, and people living with disabilities and those with small to medium enterprises. Other beneficiaries include learners in schools and higher and tertiary institutions, farmers, artisanal miners, manufacturers and industrialists, country image advocates, and people affected by natural disasters and calamities such as cyclones.
The outline provided by the Minister and evidence on the ground, point to massive success and a bold declaration that the future looks bright. We therefore implore all stakeholders to keep their hands on the deck, and ensure a better future for all Zimbabweans.
