Rupiah admits FNDP’s flawed implementation

Rupiah admits FNDP’s flawed implementation
By Mutale Kapekele and Joseph Mwenda
Sat 05 Feb. 2011, 04:01 CAT

PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has admitted that implementation of the Fifth National Development Plan was negatively affected by poor coordination and weak linkages within government departments.

The President said this at the launch of the K132 trillion rich Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP), which will run from 2011 to 2015.

President Banda said in preparing the SNDP, the government took note of the lessons learnt from the previous development plans and experience which indicated that many programs were only partially funded and could not, therefore, be completed due to limited resources.

“It was noted that poor coordination and weak linkages among various government units and other stakeholders implementing similar programmes adversely affected performance of the plan,” President Banda said.

“This is notwithstanding, positive achievements that were recorded during the period. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by about six percent on average during the plan period amid the unprecedented difficulties in the global economy as a result of the global financial and economic crisis. However, this growth was below the seven percent in the FNDP. Overall poverty fell from 73 percent to 64 percent though rural poverty remained high.”

President Banda said both domestic and foreign private investment grew and Zambia’s competitiveness continued to improve during the implementation period of the FNDP.

He said through the SNDP, the government would continue to focus on investing in infrastructure, with a bias towards energy, road, railway and air transportation, human resource development in areas of education skills, health, water and sanitation.

“During the period, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty is expected to decline from 37 per cent in 2006 to about 29 per cent in 2015 while rural poverty is expected to decline from 77 per cent in 2006 to 50 per cent in 2015,” he said.

“The SNDP will also continue to address the structural bottlenecks in the economy in order to accelerate socio-economic transformation for prosperity. Solutions in the plan aim at creating employment, raising average per capita income levels and further improving Zambia’s competitiveness.”

President Banda also said the private sector would remain the engine of growth and development.

“In that regard, I emphasise that the private sector remains a key partner in Zambia’s development and, therefore, needs to actively participate in the implementation of the plan,” he said.

“The private sector should lead the growth and government will provide the atmosphere for you to do this.”

He said the projected resource envelope for the SNDP was K132 trillion, which would be met by K103 trillion of domestic resources, and K29 trillion, or 22 per cent, from external assistance and external borrowing.

“However, there is need for further strengthening of domestic revenue collections and public expenditure,” President Banda said.

“I, therefore, urge the minister of to give serious attention to implementation of revenue measures as well as measures aimed at strengthening public expenditure.”

Earlier, finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane said the FNDP was successful owing to the economic growth of an average of six percent and successes in the mining sector.

“The performance of the FNDP was very good,” Dr Musokotwane said.

“During that period, the economy turned around with an average growth rate of six per cent. During that same period, more than 700,000 tonnes of copper was produced per annum and indications show that we could hit two million per annum in the next five to six years. This is 10 times more than what was produced in 2010.”

Dr Situmbeko also said the FNDP led to successes in all sectors and raised employment levels.