FINANCE minister Alexander Chikwanda says aligning national development processes to political party cycles will ensure political party manifestos are translated into development plans.
Officially opening the launch of the 2012 annual progress report of the Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP) 2011 – 2015, Chikwanda said national development plans should be made permeable to adjustments in policy shifts.
“Due to the mismatch between the current SNDP and the policy shift of the PF government’s 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.
He said the government would also invest significantly in education and skills development as well as improving health service delivery and water and sanitation.
“People armed with skills, commitment and suitable work ethic are the most significant resource any country has,” said Chikwanda. “Government will in the plan period continue to address bottlenecks that invariably inhibit smooth implementation of any plans. This will include accelerating implementation of the decentralisation policy, putting in place integrated planning and budgeting framework, undertaking reforms on public finance management and speedily implementing the e-governemnt, private sector and financial sector development programmes among many others.”
african politics
August 23, 2013 at 4:59 pm
Sangwapo!
Mbulwe.MC
August 24, 2013 at 8:33 pm
This is good.There has been debate that civil Servants implement National policy and not Political party manifesto.Weather right or wrong ,the ruling party has an influence on the formulation of NDP,in this case the SNDP had MMD political ideology ,therefore for PF ,there is need for it to also aline its manifesto in the National development plan because that is the way best it can deliver .We need PF to work hard that now Ps know what to do and that there are not in dilemma should perform.