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(TALKZIMBABWE) Mugabe launches short term recovery plan

Mugabe launches short term recovery plan
Our reporter
Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:41:00 +0000

PRESIDENT Mugabe on Thursday launched the Short Term Economic Recovery Program (STERP) at the Rainbow Towers Hotel (formerly Sheraton) in Zimbabwe. The launch comes a day after Ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Finance held a special briefing with the Diplomatic Community in Harare.

In a speech to mark the launch of STERP, President Mugabe called for foreign aid to revive Zimbabwe's economy and urged Washington and Brussels to end sanctions against Zimbabwe.

"I on behalf of the inclusive Government and the people of Zimbabwe say, friends of Zimbabwe please come to our aid," Mugabe said at the launch of a new economic recovery plan prepared by the month-old inclusive Government.

"To the European Union and the United States, I appeal for the removal of your sanctions which are inhumane, cruel and unwarranted."

"We also wish to appeal to all those countries which wish us to succeed to support our national endeavour to turn around our economy," he added.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi told journalists before the launch that a meeting held with diplomats focused on how best the diplomatic envoys can communicate to their respective countries Zimbabwe’s preparedness to revive normal international relations.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti expressed confidence in the Short Term Recovery Programme. He said is one of the key instruments the inclusive Government has crafted in its quest to mend relations with the international community as it re-builds Zimbabwe’s economy.

The launch came at a time Government is putting together a team of ministers to engage the European member states in bilateral talks with a view to reviving relations severed by the sanctions the bloc imposed on Zimbabwe.

Denmark which closed its embassy in Zimbabwe in 2002 and is currently operating from Zambia has taken the lead and indications are high that they will reopen their embassy soon.

The Danish Minister of Development Corporation Ms Ulla Tornaes is in the country to assess current situation following the formation of the inclusive Government.

President Mugabe did not say how much aid Zimbabwe wanted, as he launched the Short-term Emergency Recovery Progamme (STERP) in a ceremony at a Harare hotel.

"The successful implementation of STERP will indeed require a substantial amount of resources... We hope these will be forthcoming," he said.

President Mugabe said that Zimbabwe needed to move away from "divisive and distractive activities and devote ourselves to a constructive and beneficial socio-economic reconstruction programme."

He said the programme would involve lifting price controls, which have been blamed for undermining manufacturing.

"We thus envisage a giant step towards economic stabilisation," President Mugabe said at the ceremony which was attended by Minister Biti and other officials from Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) party.

The economic blueprint said that the Government would stop measuring inflation in Zimbabwe dollars and use foreign currency instead. No inflation estimate has been published since the last figure of 239 million percent in July.

The document said that the switch to foreign currency could bring inflation down to 10 percent by the end of the year.

African Development Bank chief economist Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa, who attended the presentation, said that the document "showed an attempt to project a unity of purpose" by the new inclusive Government.

"The five billion dollar bail-out might sound like a lot of money, but it is the right amount for a for a country like Zimbabwe," he said.

Labels: MUGABE, STERP, ZANU-PF

posted by MrK @ 8:16 PM