Zimbabwe needs $27 billion for ZimAsset

Government needs to raise in excess of $27 billion to fund projects outlined in the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.

Zim Asset is the Government's new macro-economic policy that will guide economic development programmes over the next five years until December 2018.

The blueprint, which borrows from the ruling party Zanu-PF's election manifesto and previous national development programmes, identifies four, but all-encompassing clusters, namely food security and nutrition, social services and poverty reduction, infrastructure and utilities and value addition and beneficiation.

Speaking at a workshop organized by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries on ZimAsset today, acting director of fiscal policy and advisory services Jonah Mushayi said only 7,5 percent of the total amount would come from the budget while 92,5 percent would have to be mobilized from external sources.

"Total financial requirement for Zim Asset is $27 billion for the whole term with the bulk of it earmarked for energy, water, transport ICT sanitation and social services," he said. External sources of funding include joint ventures, Diaspora resources, external financing as well as debt relief.

"In view of the limitations of domestic resource mobilization capacity, joint ventures will also be actively pursued," he said. He said key infrastructure projects had been identified to be funded from joint venture partnerships.

Mushayi added that Ggovernment would explore the possibility of financial assistance through bilateral agreements with countries in the region.

He said there would also be consideration of tapping into the $29,1 billion fund set aside for the Caribbean and Pacific countries under the 11th European Development Fund as well as the $110 billion Islamic Bonds.

"We need to come up with bankable projects and to prioritise servicing loans to unlock more financing," he added.