The following is a verbatim statement made to ZAPP(Virtual Parliament) by Hon. Chinyemba Sovi. Mr Speaker I wish to make a policy statement with regard to the mismatch of our economic and political calenders. I wish to start by quoting the Honourable Minister of Finance during the launch of the REVISED 6th NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN, Due to the mismatch between the current SNDP and the policy shift of the PF governments development agenda, government took a bold decision to revise the SNDP to reflect the policy focus of the PF government, Chikwanda said. Further, the revision of the SNDP will enable government to align the national development planning process to the political cycle so that each government that comes into power is able translate its manifesto into programmes through subsequent national development plans. Chikwanda said the revised SNDP would give due prominence to investing in capital projects and programmes in agriculture and promoting agro-processing, accelerating infrastructure development and promoting development in developing the energy sector. This was during the launch of the 2012 annual progress report of the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) 2011-2015 at which the Honourable Minister announced the alignment of the PF Manifesto to the Sixth National Development Plan. Mr Speaker, it is arising from this that I propose that all political parties going forward should NOT be allowed to campaign on the basis of their party manifestos BUT on how they best interpret the implementation of the next development plan agenda which will be the 7th(2016-2020), 8th(2021-2025) and 9th(2026-2030) National Development Plans respectively. Mr Speaker, the alignment should be DURING campaigns and NOT after to avoid time wasted in fixing the MISMATCH between party manifestos and the national development plans which are phases of the VISION 2030. I wish to further propose that the political term of office should be aligned to expire a year before the end of each phase of each successive National Development Plan to allow for planning review and planning by the next party that forms government as opposed to changing government one year into the next phase. For example the SNDP runs from 2011-2015 if there will be a change of government in 2016 we would be one year into the 7th National Development Plan and it will take another year for the new government to settle in office. That will be two years of focus lost. It will even be worse if they enter government on a platform that is populist,( sounds appealing to the majority of the electorate) but is not aligned with the 7th National Development Plan(2016-2020) as the case is now. That will take extra work to again realign the mismatch. Zambia already has an economic blue print in the name of Vision 2030, therefore campaigns by political parties should be based on The best interpretation of the Theme”, of relevant phase of Vision 2030 in this case, the 7th National Development Plan (2016-2020). Mr Speaker, there is no need to reinvent the wheel by each party coming up with its own manifesto and then come to realign its manifesto to the National Development plan, which is effectively campaigning in reverse. As a nation we passed that stage in 2006 when Vision 2030 was launched. Therefore going forward elections should be held a year before the expiration of the 5 year economic plan which will in this case be in 2020. What this would mean is that if say there is a change of government, elections should be held in 2019 (on the second Thursday of August as proposed in the Draft Constitution ) 2020 Jan – June as the last budget cycle of the party in power plays out, it can be used to review the 7th National Development Plan so that in October 2020 the new government can present its own budget to parliament and give time for parliament to debate and adopt so that come 2021 which will be the first year of the next 5 year period of the 8th National Development Plan implementation can start. Mr Speaker, the current MISMATCH in the POLITICAL and ECONOMIC calendar is the reason why political parties make impracticable promises that cannot be implemented within their tenure of office and leads to the loss of real economic growth and focus of the nation. I beg to move.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Jul 2014 01:16:59 +0000
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