In about a couple of weeks, the year 2022 will come to a close, to open 2023, an election year for our nation.
Global situation
From early 2020, and since the beginning of this year, both our country and the global order have been stalked and buffeted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and by the conflict in Eastern Europe. Add to both the challenges of global climate change, and what you get is a compounded national and global situation which put the resilience of our nation and that of the Global order to severest test.
We held our own!
I am quite pleased our nation, led by Government, rose to the occasion so remarkably. To the citizen, whether at home or abroad, there was no by-stander. Thank you Zimbabweans for the sterling effort which you exerted and executed with such amazing unity of purpose. That became a winning formula which saw our nation going through, and even registering remarkable gains in adversity. Our economy is projected to grow by 4,6 percent in the year we are about to close. This growth rate is above the average in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Excellent response to Covid-19
The pandemic which wreaked havoc in almost all parts of the world, including developed countries, also hit us, but relatively with subdued devastation, when compared to many nations of the world. Our vaccination roll-out strategy delivered, in the process saving many lives we could have lost. We mobilised our innovativeness to meet key requirements in the fight against the scourge. That capability continues to be sharpened and broadened to cover many other areas of national endeavour.
Theatre of innovativeness
Education 5.0 has served us well, turning our nation into a theatre of innovativeness. The launch of ZIMSAT-1 only under two months ago, and our embarking on assembling ZIMSAT-2, which is now underway, speaks of a nation breaking into new domains of scientific mastery. I want to pay special tribute to our universities and scientific community for generating far-reaching solutions to problems and challenges of our day and age. Such is the role of science and technology in nation-and resilience-building.
Achieving food security
While the conflict in Eastern Europe amply revealed global food insecurity, with many parts of the world facing serious food challenges, our nation used that conflict situation to horn and strengthen its food security systems. The exercise is far from complete, but remarkable strides have been made, as was amply demonstrated by the recent bumper wheat crop which got us to self-sufficiency in the cereal. With the aggressive strategy we continue to pursue in climate proofing our agriculture through investment in dam construction and modern irrigation facilities, I have no doubt in my mind that we will regain our bread-basket status in the next few seasons. We must aim to be food-secure, both in lean and plenteous years. Above all, we must strive to be a net food exporter in the region, on our African continent and even beyond. The broken global food systems must present our nation with a great opportunity to be seized. We have the land; we have built resilience; we are a hardworking, agricultural nation. Again, I thank our farmers for heeding our call to put shoulder to wheel.
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