Indaba to evaluate Zim growth strategies on cards
Finance and Economic Development Ministry is set to hold a conference aimed at evaluating Zimbabwe’s growth strategies, discussing structural changes and assessing the current economic growth models to formulate evidence-based solutions.
Dubbed Zimbabwe Economic Development Strategy International Convention, the inaugural meeting will be held in the resort town of Victoria Falls between August 10 and 12 at the Elephant Hills Hotel.
It will bring together policymakers, researchers, and business and development partners, according to the Ministry.
Recommendations from the conference will contribute towards the preparation of the 2023 National Budget, the review of the National Development Strategy (NDS1), and help inform Zimbabwe’s growth trajectory towards Vision 2030.
The economy has gone through a series of structural changes since 2018 including currency reforms when the country returned to the use of the Zimbabwe dollar as its mono currency in 2019.
A year later, it allowed people and businesses with free funds to transact using foreign currency at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recently, the Government legalised the use of foreign currency until 2025 partly meant to support the implementation of the NDS1, the country’s medium economic blueprint.
Some of the growth strategies the country has embarked on include expanding the mining economy to a US$12 billion industry by 2023 and committing more resources toward infrastructure development.
The Government has also been spending on agriculture through various state-assisted farming schemes as part of its growth measures.
However, following the outbreak of a war in Ukraine and the effects of Covid 19 that seriously affected supply chains of many products, prices have been increasing at an alarming rate even in US dollar terms.
Besides raw materials for cooking oil and other key products, fertiliser prices have also broken the glass ceiling, jumping from US$25 to the current retail prices of US$75 per 50 kg bag.-ebusinessweekly
