Political Reporter
The ruling ZANU PF Party yesterday held a no holds barred interface meeting with its stakeholders drawn from the business sector, churches and civic organisations to get their views on the state of the economy in the country.
The meeting that was co–chaired by ZANU PF National Political Commissar, Dr Mike Bimha and the Party’s National Secretary for Finance, Cde Patrick Chinamasa was held in Harare under the theme, ‘What we need to do as a nation to accelerate and achieve sustainable economic growth.’
The thrust of the meeting was for the Party’s stakeholders to air their views and thoughts on the best possible ways to achieve sustainable economic growth.
Speaking at the meeting, Business Economic Forum (BEF) president, Mr Solomon Matsa commended the Party for hosting such a meeting and said such meetings would enable stakeholders to contribute towards the development of the country.
“The meeting shows that the party under the Second Republic cares about its people where the party leadership asks people to come and share notes on the state of the economy. This is a platform where we know where we are going forward as a nation. From this dialogue we are bringing a lot of ideas, we are very confident that they are going to implement some of the things which will buttress the economy,” said Mutasa.
Mutasa added that ZANU PF’s members deployed in Government should work tirelessly to implement people centred policies.
“People who were appointed by the Government must deliver for the betterment of the people. They are there to work for the people of this country. They have to make life of ordinary people better,” added Mutasa.
The Confederations of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president, Kurai Matsheza said that another way of improving our economy was for local companies to take a deliberate stance to start value addition of our local products. He added that the manufacturing sector should be supported so as to reduce the bill of our imports.
A Chinese investor, Xilong Su said the New Dispensation opened investment opportunities in the country and added that the environment in the country was conducive for meangful investments.
“I would like to thank President Mnangagwa for opening up Zimbabwe to investors. I came to Zimbabwe to look for opportunities to invest in Zimbabwe and I can testify that indeed Zimbabwe is open for business,” said Su.
Other speakers such as industrialist, Calisto Jokonya, Trans Limpopo Capital leader Wellington Pasipamire, Confederations Retailers of Zimbabwe president Denford Mutashu, among others, urged the Party to implement policies that would benefit ordinary people. The Party was challenged to deploy competent individuals to work in Government, individuals who share the same development vision with President Mnangagwa.
At the same meeting, various speakers said that it was important that civil servants were well remunerated as they were vital cogs in the fulfilment of the targets of Vision 2030 of having an upper middle income economy by year 2030.
Speaking at the meeting, Cde Bimha told attendees that the duty of the Party was to continuously monitor and evaluate the implementation of Government programmes and ensure they were aligned to party policies.
Cde Chinamasa added that what was deliberated at the interface meeting would be taken to the ZANU PF’s leadership for digestion.
Meanwhile, the Party has promised to hold such meetings across the country to listen to the views and concerns of the people ahead of the 2023 elections.
