Call for government officials to be efficient

Harare (New Ziana) -Government officials should execute their duties efficiently to justify the fresh mandate that the people bestowed on the ruling Zanu PF party in the August harmonised elections, Vice President General (Retired) Constantino Chiwenga said on Thursday.

He was addressing participants attending the Government Exchange Programme between Zimbabwe and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Harare on Thursday.

UAE team leader, Abdullah Nasser Lootah, who is also the Deputy Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Competitiveness and Exchange and his delegation, will engage Zimbabwean Ministers, Deputy Ministers and permanent secretaries in a three-day schedule that will end on Saturday.

The program is meant to ensure that while learning the success story of the UAE, public institutions and systems in the country continuously reform for high performance, delivery and modernization in line with the vision of attaining an upper middle-income economy by 2023.

VP Chiwenga said by engaging with the UAE, there was a need to benchmark with other best practises while contextualizing and systemizing local capacities and capabilities.

“This workshop is among other objectives, expected to re-invigorate our modus operandi by offering us best practices in leadership, accelerating implementation of programmes and projects and other contemporary evolutions in innovation in government excellence and service delivery,” he said.

“I have no doubt that the workshop will impact positively through high performance and delivery of timeous and quality services to the people, in addition to fostering transparency and accountability.”

He said the workshop should emphasize on the promotion of uniform and inclusive development, as espoused in the guiding principle of ‘Leaving No One and No Place Behind’ while championing people oriented policies.

This, he said, should be achieved through utilizing local resource endowments and applying home-grown solutions.

“We therefore need to revamp our systems and processes so that they are able to comply with requirements of accelerated movement towards the early attainment of Vision 2030,” he said.

VP Chiwenga commended the UAE leadership for ensuring that the workshop takes place saying it demonstrates that the engagement and re-engagement policy is bearing fruit, adding that Zimbabwe is open for business.

Lootah said the exchange programme is a platform on which Zimbabwe and his country are expanding and strengthening bilateral relations.

Nine key areas that will be at the centre of the engagement between the two nations include Government Accelerators, Government Exchange, Leadership and Capacity Building, ICT Skills Development, Human Resources, Competitiveness and Statistics, Government Strategy and Innovation, Government Performance and National Agenda.

New Ziana