The Sunday News
Simba Jemwa, Sunday News Correspondent
THERE is a need for youths to familiarise themselves with the National Development Strategy 1, so that they can tap into opportunities that the economic blueprint offers.
Speaking at an event to commemorate the Day of the African Child organised by the Zimbabwe Young Graduates and Youth Development Forum (ZYGYDF) in Bulawayo last week, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Honourable Rajesh Modi said youths need to align themselves through ingenious means to the economy.
National Development Strategy 1
“We are currently in the phase of the NDS1 (National Development Strategy 1).
This phase is running from January 2021 to December of 2025.
It is within this phase which we are currently in that we seek to encourage the youth to align themselves through ingenious means to the economy,” said Deputy Minister Modi.
The event was also attended by the ZYGYDF executive director for recruitment, Mr Godknows Mdhari and its provincial chairperson, Mr Addington Mpofu.
Dep Minister Modi called for a deeper, wider and open-minded discussion about NDS1 main objective to ensure the country achieves an annual economic growth of 5 percent.
He said the sectors that are expected to drive this growth are agriculture, mining, tourism, and manufacturing.
“Growth is also expected in the service sector, this is the financial, insurance, commerce and e-commerce sectors.
Though stifled by Covid-19,which continues to wreak havoc, we have managed an impressive 7,8 percent growth which is expected by the end of this year.
The youth are encouraged to seek activities in the above-mentioned fields.
“I will not go into all of them but will pick a few of the sectors to make an example to you.
NDS1 seeks to improve Zimbabwe’s food self-sufficiency.
Zimbabwe
Our self-sufficiency in this area is measured at 45 percent and we seek to have achieved 100 percent by the end of NDS1 in 2025.
“I therefore, exhort young people to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and outlook so that they align themselves to this vision and become part of the development.
“The youth also have the technical know-how on issues such as value addition and beneficiation.
Usage of this knowledge shall help develop a culture of exporting processed and not raw goods.
“Beneficiation is a fledgling industry and I encourage you the youth to be spearheading this field, be it in farming, mining, or manufacturing, let us beneficiate, beneficiate and beneficiate.
Only in this way can we drive forward together Zimbabwe’s’ industrialisation agenda.”
Mr Mdhari encouraged the youths to work towards acquiring skills that will enable them to be employers and thus contribute to the Vision 2030 which aims for an upper-middle class economy by the year 2030.
“As young people at university or college, we must aspire to acquire and retain skills that will ensure that we contribute to the Second Republic’s Vision 2030.
And to do this we must no longer aspire to get educated to become employees but rather to be employers ourselves,” Mr Mdhari said.
