Harare — THE 2010 National Budget targets presented by the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti are in congruence with the targets of the Medium Term Plan 2010-2015, and is a vehicle for implementing the plan.

The permanent secretary for Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Dr Desire Sibanda said there is congruence between the MTP and the National Budget.

"The emphasis in both documents is on growing the economy to be achieved during the coming five years. The budget has identified the priority programmes for the key areas of development captured in the MTP.

"It is important to have national co-ordinated strategies for the key sectors that drive the economy," he said.

The priorities of the 2010 budget represents to a large extent the priorities contained in the draft MTP document for 2010.

Dr Sibanda said now that the budget has been announced, Zimbabweans should now through MTP come up with strategies, policies, programmes and national projects to grow the economy further following the stabilisation programmes of STERP and the annual budget.

The national budget is consistent with the MTP in its focus of transforming the economy in to a low cost producer and ensuring high growth rates.

Dr Sibanda said overall recurrent expenditures as a percentage of total expenditure should continue to fall so as to achieve capital development programmes through savings and investment.

"It is important in this national budget that it is in line with the MTP, which is being crafted in a participative manner and would go a long way in enhancing the participatory process in national development planning," he said.

The MTP will now examine what is feasible within the medium and long-term framework that is beyond the one-year budget.

Currently, the Ministry of Economic Planning is organising consultative meetings to articulate a clear national vision to guide future budgetary processes.

"This democratic economic planning process will facilitate the smooth implementation of Government programmes, budgets and economic policies," Dr Sibanda said.

According to statistics released by the ministry, over 1 000 Zimbabweans have so far made inputs to the Draft Document of the MTP through the nation-wide stakeholders consultations and debates.

He said, "The consultations have so far covered the legislature, agricultural sector, mining, financial social sectors, infrastructure sector, diplomats, international community, World Bank and IMF."

He added that the announcement of the budget would now make it easier to see the synergies between planning and budgeting.

It is hoped that the MTP would be approved or ratified by the legislative in March next year after the completion of the consultative process.

Among other issues, the MTP and the 2010 budget have emphasised key strategies to transform the economy and achieve high levels of growth during the coming five years.

Some of the key strategies include:

• revenue generation and strengthening machinery for tax collection,
• growing economy to reduce poverty and prioritising health, water an infrastructure.

The two policies seek to promote exports, develop efficient capital market, providing credit to the private sector and promoting high productivity in the mining sector.