Mugabe’s full speech at the official opening of the 8th Parliament today

 Furthermore, to confer additional functions provided for by the Constitution on the Constitutional Court, the Constitutional Court Bill will be brought in this Parliament, together with the Companies Amendment Bill, the Prisons, and Correctional Service Bill, which also seeks to align the existing Acts to the Constitution.

 Madame President, Mr. Speaker Sir,

 This Session also comes amid increased optimism for a stronger rebound of the national economy, largely buoyed by the present good performance in agriculture and mining.  The country has this year succeeded in regaining its food self-sufficiency status, on the back of a good rain season and the introduction of the Command Agriculture Production Programme. Government is now working to consolidate agriculture through, among other things, investing more resources in water harvesting and irrigation development.

 Madame President, Mr. Speaker Sir,

 The phenomenon of climate change is now a distinct reality in our region and perhaps in all regions of our world.  This has been amply confirmed by the growing incidence of alternating bouts of floods and droughts which we are witnessing as a region.  To strengthen our disaster responses and resilience mechanisms, and in order to effectively respond to such occurrences as a country, a Disaster Risk Management Bill will be tabled in this august House.

 To enhance national economic competitiveness and the country’s appeal as an investment destination, Government has embarked on reforms to improve the domestic business environment. A number of identified supportive legislative amendments have already been forwarded to this august House for action.  These include the Insolvency Bill; the Judicial Laws Amendment Bill; the Estate Administrative Amendment Bill; and the Shop Licenses Amendment Bill.  I, therefore, appeal to this august House to accord priority attention to these very important Bills when this Session gets underway.

 In addition, the Labour Law Amendment Bill, which seeks to address stakeholders’ concerns relating to labour market flexibility and job security, will soon be tabled before this House.  The Public Entities and Corporate Governance Bill already before Parliament will bolster the fight against corruption and other corporate governance ills afflicting our public entities.

 Madame President, Mr. Speaker Sir,

The Cooperating Societies Amendment Bill to strengthen the regulation of cooperatives in the country will be brought for consideration by this Parliament.  Work is also underway to come up with a Land Developers Bill in order to bring sanity to the operations of land developers.  Furthermore, the Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the World Trade Organisation will be tabled for ratification during this Session.  The Agreement seeks to promote the expeditious movement of goods through the application of technological innovations.

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