THE growth-oriented economic policy thrust which has seen other emerging markets such as India adopting policies similar to Zimbabwe’s National Development Strategy economic blueprint is expected to instil confidence in the country’s economic turnaround strategy.
Zimbabwe’s economy has undergone a major transformation over the last three years through the foundation laid by the Transitional Stabilisation Programme which brought economic stability.
The spin-off effects have transcended to the growth-oriented five year National Development Strategy one (NDS1) which is set to catapult the country into an upper-middle-income economy by the year 2030.
What is even more impressive is the impact of such policies in other emerging economies with India’s Finance Minister Mr Nirmala Sitharaman having unveiled a growth-oriented budget which seeks to create a 5 trillion United States dollar economy by the year 2025.
The fact that India’s budget is modelled around Zimbabwe’s economic blueprint should instil confidence in the direction headed by the local economy.
Economic Commentator Mr Tendai Chinamasa acknowledged that if Zimbabwe’s economic policy thrust matches some of the five major emerging national economies, then it is indeed in safe hands.
“There are huge takeaways from the recently unveiled budget of India and we can see as a country the shrewdness of our Government in terms of how they are intending to grow the economy. Our policy blueprints dovetail with exactly what needs to be done to fully develop the economy into the required standards,” he said.
With India’s Finance Minister announcing Digital India and the Make in India Initiative which draw parallels to our own Smart economy and Local Content Policy as enshrined in the National Development Strategy One (NDS1), economists are convinced that Zimbabwe is on the right track.
“The IMF has made an impressive forecast of the growth rate of the Indian economy based on their budget and spending on infrastructure and Consumption. If you closely look at our own Economic blueprint it is exactly modelled the same as India’s so you obviously get confidence that our policymakers have hit it where it matters in terms of economic growth and development,” he said.
India also doubled allocations for massive infrastructure development in a similar fashion to Zimbabwe’s road infrastructure development, power generation and airports expansion.
By Owen Mandovha, ZBC NEWS
