Zimpapers Logo

Nqobile Bhebhe, Senior Business Reporter

THE World Bank will this week hold a hybrid presentation of the country’s economic memorandum (CEM), which aims to identify options for structural reforms to help Zimbabwe accelerate economic growth and achieve upper middle-income country status.

The meeting will be held both virtually and physically on Wednesday.

Presentations are expected from Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, World Bank country manager, Ms Marjorie Mpundu, and several World Bank trade specialists and economists.

Topics to be tackled include macro-economic policies, shocks and structural transformation, trends and drivers of productivity, enhancing productivity, job quality in the informal sector and boosting trade to scale up productivity of the formal sector.

Zimbabwe has instituted several economic reforms and remains on course to achieve its target of becoming an upper-middle-income economy by 2030. The Government has said it is accelerating policy interventions under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) to attain the milestone.

NDS1 is Zimbabwe’s economic development blueprint (2020-2025) and outlines programmes and projects plans during the period by defining the trajectory and aligning the country’s financial flows with policy priorities as identified by stakeholders at national, provincial and local level.

According to the World Bank, a middle-income economy is one with a gross national income ranging between USUS$1 086 and USS$12 235 per capita.