Zimbabwe inaugural economic conference roars to life

THE inaugural Zimbabwe Economic Development Conference (ZEDCON) kicked off here yesterday with a call for more research to buttress policy formulation and implementation that will steer the country’s transformation agenda towards Vision 2030.

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development is hosting the event, which will be officially opened by President Mnangagwa tomorrow.

The conference seeks to engage various stakeholders regards to implementation of policy and is expected to feed into the 2023 budget formulation process.

It presents an opportunity for captains of industry, the academia and Zimbabweans at large to reflect on economic experiences as a country and deliberate on policies critical for accelerating the economic transformation agenda that the Government has been pursuing since the advent of the Second Republic in 2017.

In his welcome remarks, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Clemence Chiduwa, said the Second Republic has adopted a new transformative approach to economic management anchored on the national aspirations.

Under Vision 2030, Zimbabwe is determined to achieve a prosperous and empowered upper middle-income society.

“Vision 2030 cannot be achieved through the same old way of doing things. This convention reflects that effort, a completely new way of engaging with key stakeholders,” said Deputy Minister Chiduwa.

“The theme for the conference: ‘Accelerating Economic Transformation through Evidence Based Policy Formulation’ aptly draws on and aligns with the 2023 Budget Strategy Paper theme, which is ‘Accelerating Economic Transformation’.”

President Mnangagwa
He said the situation in Zimbabwe requires concerted efforts by experts from around the world to discuss and analyse the development strategy. “To meet the aspiration of Vision 2030, research becomes key in informing the implementation progress and providing corrective measures where necessary,” he said.

“Zimbabwe like many other developing countries, have less uptake of research in policy formulation and implementation. This is even important in view of the confluence of calamities now affecting economies worldwide such as climate change, geo-political tension and health epidemics, among others. This therefore, clearly demonstrates the need for deeper diagnosis of challenges and implementation of country driven solutions,” said Deputy Minister Chiduwa.

Through the National Development Strategy 1, Government envisions economic growth and stability at a growth rate of five percent each year and provision of key and transformative public infrastructure and improved service delivery.

Deputy Minister Chiduwa said Government’s priority was to restore market confidence as well as achieve exchange rate and inflation stability hence the 2023 Macro-Fiscal Framework and policy reforms will focus on sustainable fiscal management, supportive monetary policy measures and addressing structural bottlenecks.

inflation
Meanwhile, participants have called for inclusion of private sector and industry in policy formulation, interrogation of causes of huge money supply and runaway exchange rates so as to reduce macro-economic shocks. – The Chronicle