Tsvangirai described the first 18 months of coalition rule as progressive, while lamenting political divisions that he said took centre stage during the first half of this year.
“The President and I agreed yesterday (Wednesday) that …. the first one and half years (of unity government) were progressive,” said Tsvangirai, speaking at the launch of a new four-year economic blue print known as the Medium Term Plan (MTP).
“In the last six months what has come out in the public is discord and dysfunction. In spite-of our political variations, we must commit ourselves to the principal objectives of the medium term plan,” said the former opposition chief.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai agreed in 2009 to form a unity government under pressure from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) keen to end a dangerous political stalemate following violence marred and inconclusive elections three years ago.
Although the unity government has not achieved much success on the political front while also failing to end political violence and human rights abuses, it is however credited with mending a broken economy after implementing bold measures, including the adoption of multiple currencies that stabilised the market and doused hyperinflation.
Zimbabwe, in recession between 1999 and 2008, recorded its first growth in a decade when the economy expanded in 2009 by 5.7 percent. The government expects the economy to grow by 9.3 percent this year. The economy grew by 8.1 percent in 2010.
Under the US$9.2 billion MTP, the government is targeting average annual growth of seven percent over the next four years, while also looking to maintain single digit inflation and six percent annual employment creation.
The plan that Economic Planning Minister Tapiwa Mashakada said will be financed through domestic savings, foreign direct investment, credit lines and public/private sector partnerships also looks to raise investment for collapsing state-owned firms like Air Zimbabwe, the state railway company and power utility ZESA.
“The last ten years are referred to as a lost decade; we need to discover our lost glory. The main points of MTP are economic transformation and restoration of development,” Mashakada said.
Post published in: News