LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
The Government has invested ZWL$2bn in Public Sector Investment Programmes (PSIPs) to ensure effective implementation of national development projects.
PSIP is the budgeting and strategic planning tool available to the government to translate its policies and plans into tangible projects and programmes, which will ultimately boost the country’s revenue.
Finance and Economic Development minister Mthuli Ncube told Business Times recently that the government had to find other revenue making mechanisms to keep up with the rising cost of living.
“The government has set aside close to ZWL$2 billion for various projects in agriculture, infrastructure development, health and tourism under the PSIPs to enhance capacity in the civil service and expand Zimbabwe’s revenue generating methods,” the finance minister said.
“If properly done, these programmes, together with public private partnerships, will ensure that projects implemented by the government will realise the development goals set in the country’s growth and development strategy, in a more efficient and effective manner,” Ncube said.
Ncube said the government was cognisant of the need to continuously review the conditions of service of civil servants. The government recently awarded them a 30% salary increase, and has provided a fleet of buses to facilitate the movement of civil servants to and from work.
In addition, efforts are still underway to provide decent accommodation to civil servants under the PSIPs.
In rural areas and farms, the government is targeting the development of 11,400 hectares of low-cost irrigation schemes under PSIPs to improve agriculture productivity.
The development is set to increase the size of irrigable land as the country moves to produce crops all year round to earn extra money.
Under this programme, the government is also negotiating for agriculture equipment suppliers to provide $30m worth of implements to start various irrigation projects in the last quarter of the year.
There are also ongoing PSIPs Projects such as Chiduku-Tikwiri in Manicaland, Chitora in Mashonaland East, and Fuwe Panganayi in Masvingo to shield the nation from droughts.
The Ministry of Finance is targeting 200 hectares of irrigated land per district under the PSIPs in a bid to improve productivity per hectare.
The government wants to increase the country’s current 150,000 hectares of irrigable land to 300,000 hectares in the next three years.
The government will give set aside ZWL$2bn to public private partnership to develop large-scale high-budget infrastructure projects on a cost effective and sustainable basis. The PPP model is an infrastructure-financing trend that is used globally.
