26 Aug 2020

Parliament has adopted National Development Plan (NDP 11) mid-term review and the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP).

When responding to legislators’ comments, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Thapelo Matsheka, said thematic working groups (TWGs), which brought together government ministries, civil society, private sector and development partners contributed to NDP and mid-term review through broad development themes.

In this regard, he said dissenting voices that there was no consultation on the mid-term review were not true because the review was basically the agreed NDP 11 plan.

With regards to priority areas as contained in the review plan, he said building resilience and efficiency in government spending had been identified as a priority to guide policy for remainder of NDP 11.

Dr Matsheka said he appreciated legislators concerns on human development issues and that government would continue to engage the youth in development of the economy.

Concerning completion of development projects, he said ERTP contained specific commitments to improving management by bringing in appropriate skills from the private sector.

“This remains an area of concern with government and appropriate response plans are being put in place,” he stated.

Furthermore, he said government would address emerging issues crucial to the country’s development.

To this end, he said urgency and priority would be given to sectors with potential to grow the economy. He said prioritisation of projects was important, particularly energy projects and tourism diversification.

Dr Matsheka also noted a number of specific interventions aimed at alleviating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic including shortage of fuel.

“Shortage of fuel indeed illustrated our vulnerability in relying on limited source of fuel supply,” he stated.

In this regard, he said government had initiated development of alternative sources of fuel to ensure resilience of fuel supplies and avoid being held to ransom by a single source of fuel supplies.

As for health and  education, he said they had been identified as pillars of human capital development, which he said was government’s priority in the transformation agenda.

He stated that improving productivity in health and education sectors would be central to achieving objective of greater efficiency in government spending.

Dr Matsheka also said government was committed to fighting corruption and building resilience in the relevant institutions that dealt with it.

On agriculture, he said government would ensure that export-led growth was achieved.

He stated that COVD-19 hadproven a compelling case for the use of ICT and digital technologies to effectively deliver goods and services.

Therefore, he said government would continue to ensure investment in requisite infrastructure to promote accessibility and affordability of ICT since it was also critical in ease of doing business. ENDS