Government plans to attain an average annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of at least 4 percent in view of the austerity measures and in an effort to maintain a stable and resilient economy.

The government, thorough the Ministry of Finance, also plans to sustain inflation within the range of 6 to 8 percent.

This is contained in the 2019 – 2021 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) Green Paper obtained by Money FM News, the document that outlines the Government’s intended policy direction over the next three years.

Ministry of Finance Acting Secretary to the Treasury Dr. Dick Sichembe says the government further plans to raise international reserves to at least 4 months of import cover by 2021.

Dr. Sichembe states that the government, through his ministry, will also increase domestic revenue to not less than 19 percent of GDP by 2021.

He says other plans include the reduction of the fiscal deficit to no more than 5.1 percent of GDP by 2021, prioritize the dismantling of arrears and curtail their accumulation, reduce the pace of debt accumulation and ensure sustainability, and accelerate the diversification of the economy supported by the implementation of structural reforms.

He adds that with regard to the economic and social policies for the 2019 -2021 MTEF, Government will focus on protecting the poor and vulnerable from the unintended negative effects of the stabilisation and growth reforms.

“Education: Focus will be on increasing equitable access to quality education and skills training relevant to the needs of society, mainly through the completion of on-going education related infrastructure, reduction of the pupil-teacher ratio, and leveraging on the use of ICT platforms especially for primary and secondary education, and the redeployment of serving teachers to underserved areas,” he said.

As for the Health Sector, Dr. Sichembe says government will continue with the focus of reducing new HIV/AIDS infections to less than 5,000 per annum by the end of 2030 from the current 46,000 per annum.

“Energy: The focus will be to continue with the provision of adequate and reliable supply of energy through diversification of energy sources, such as solar, wind, bio-fuels and other alternative sources of energy. Therefore, to support private investments into the sector, Government’s policy is to continue with the migration towards cost reflective tariffs in electricity in line with the results of the cost of service study,” he has disclosed.

The Ministry of Finance Acting Secretary to the Treasury further states that government will continue to promote the diversification of the agriculture sector towards high value crops and the further development of the livestock and fisheries sub-sectors.

“Government will re-align the manufacturing sector towards promotion of both domestic and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into the already existing Multi-Facility Economic Zones (MFEZ) and industrial parks. Therefore, the Lusaka South MFEZ, the Kafue Iron and Steel MFEZ and the Kalumbila MFEZ will be fully operationalised in the medium term, Dr. Sichembe has said.