KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY

THE SPEAKER OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

HONOURABLE ADVOCATE J. F. MUDENDA

AT THE

2019 PRE-BUDGET SEMINAR

“Prudent fiscal deployment of resources for optimal economic results”

31 OCTOBER 2019 – 4th NOVEMBER 2019

Elephant Hills, Victoria Falls

On 1 October 2019, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, His Excellency, the President, Cde E. D. Mnangagwa, set out an ambitious but nonetheless surmountable national development agenda in his State of the Nation Address presented during the official opening of the Second Session of the 9th Parliament. That national development agenda takes cognizance of the opportunities and hopes of Zimbabwe which can only be achieved through productivity, innovation, responsiveness, persistence, deliberate planning and disciplined focus. The 2020 National Budget is meant to anchor the opportunities and hopes that Zimbabwe hankers for. This can only be achieved through judicious exploitation of natural resources and prudential optimal allocation of public resources. The Budget should, therefore, persuasively influence the behaviour of all economic stakeholders to contribute towards the achievement of national objectives and goals. In this context, Parliament and the Executive should create seamless synergies which must promote convergence of development priorities which should ground our national Budget. Thus, this seminar enjoins Parliament and Line Ministries, particularly the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to engage in a vicious discourse in crafting a realistic Budget responsive to the economic interests of the people of Zimbabwe. Principally, this is an opportunity for all Members of Parliament, through their respective Committees, to positively influence the architecture of the 2020 Budget. Members will also get an opportunity to dissect all the nuances of the 2020 Budget in order to enhance inclusivity and ownership of the process thereby giving legitimacy to the Budget Assumptions and Proposals by Treasury, if endorsed by the people’s representatives.

This Seminar specifically seeks to achieve the following objectives: -

1. To review the macro-economic performance of the current Budget as a point of departure to the 2020 Budget process;
2. To take into account what the people of Zimbabwe, through their representatives in Committees, expect in the National Budget formulation process and its content thereof;
3. To robustly engage line Ministries in determining the national economic priorities and programmes for the ensuing National Budget;
4. To ensure that there is gender and the Sustainable Development Goals mainstreaming in the Budget; and
5. To facilitate and enhance Parliament’s consultation with the Ministry of Finance and other line Ministries on how to fund the Budget deficit through Domestic Resource Mobilisation thereby reducing the Fiscal Deficit to acceptable thresholds.

THE FULL TEXT OF THE ADDRESS CAN BE DOWNLOADED BELOW