ZIMBABWE lost over two decades of development due toillegal sanctions and a generally unfavourable investmentclimate.The period from year 2000 to November 2017 wasparticularly difficult for Zimbabweans as they hadto contend with economic challenges and decayinginfrastructure.The national road network, water and electricity generation,went down the drain. To this day, the country is still feeling the impact of thehistorical challenges associated with failure to attend toinfrastructure development.But come the Second Republic, a new work ethic wasushered in immediately.President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also theruling ZANU PF’s President and First Secretary, hasdeclared that ‘it’s now business unusual’. And true to his pronouncement, ministers are kept on their toes as the President has set targets for them and demands to seetangible results that impact on the peoples’ lives. A number of successes have been registered in various sectors of the economy.Power generation Power is seen as a key enabler across the globe.The erratic supply of electricity in Zimbabwe which hasresulted in massive load shedding has impacted onproductivity in the manufacturing, mining and agriculturalsectors.But a deliberate focus on investing in the power generation sector by President Mnangagwa has seen a number of projects taking off across the country.The mammoth project which will generate an additional600MW when completed in 2022 is the Hwange Thermal Power Expansion project.The expansion project is being funded to the tune of US$1,5billion by the China EximBank. It entails the construction ofUnits 7 and 8, both with capacity to generate 300MW.The expansion work at Hwange Thermal Power Stationstarted on August 1 last year and now stands at 25percent, barely 14 months into the project.Highly rated Chinese firm, Sino Hydro, is undertaking theproject.The Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC), which isZESA Holdings’ power generating unit, recently said mostexcavation work had been completed, including for thecooling tower, the boiler house and the chimney.“We have completed all the excavations up to foundationlevel for Hwange 7 and 8,” the ZPC said. “As of this monthof November, we have done 14 months into our schedule.“Our current progress is around 25 percent and we are ontarget in terms of what we had planned to achieve up tomonth 14, we are currently on schedule.”The whole project will take up to 42 months to complete,but unit 7 is expected to start firing by April 2021 while unit8 would follow later on. Hwange Power Station is Zimbabwe’s largest coal-firedpower generator with an installed capacity of 920MW. However, due to lack of period refurbishment, the plant’scurrent dependable capacity is around 600MW. TheHwange expansion project had stalled for over a decadeas Beijing tightened its purse strings, unsure if the previousregime would repay the loan.But when President Mnangagwa assumed leadershipof the country, the Chinese immediately acceded to hisrequest for funding to boost power generation.The project has the capacity to employ 3 000 peopledirectly and a further 4 000 people indirectly.Another key energy project is the Kariba Hydro PowerStation, which was commissioned by the President inMarch 2018 after an expansion exercise that saw theaddition of 300MW, which took the plant’ installed capacityto 1 050MW.However, declining water levels have seen powergeneration declining to less that 300MW on average. Butbeyond Government electricity projects, the ZimbabweEnergy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) has also licencedabout 51 independent power producers (IPPs) in the lastfive years.The IPPs are into solar and hydro electricity generation.Some of the operating IPPs are Duru Mini Hydro (2,20MW),Green Fuel (18,30MW), Nyamingura Mini Hydro (1,10MW),Hippo Vally Estates (33MW), Triangle Estates (45MW) andPungwe Power Station (19MW).And,the announcement by President Mnangagwa that‘Zimbabwe is Open for Business’, has seen a flurry ofactivity in the solar sector. From January to Septemberthis year, ZERA said it had licensed 39 solar IPPs, whichhave capacity to generate up to 1 151,87MW.The latest drive does not only ensure availability of energy,but also clean energy, especially as a number of energyfunders are no longer keen to sign the cheque book forthermal projects on account of environmental impact.Some of the solar projects include Harava Solar andCentragrid, which have capacity to generate 20MW in theirfirst phase, and Matshela Energy (100MW).Centragrid started feeding 2,5MW into the national grid inJuly from their Nyabira plant, about 38km north-west ofHarare.RGM International Airport expansionPresident Mnangagwa unlocked the US$153 millionrequired to undertake the Robert Gabriel MugabeInternational Airport expansion project.The ground-breaking ceremony was presided over by thePresident on July 23 last year and works are already in fullswing, with 10 percent of the work covered so far.Contractor Jiangsu International of China, is undertakingthe expansion project. Government wants the airport to bemodernised so that it meets global standards.The expansion targets the international terminalbuilding and aprons, installation of four new air bridges,construction of a VVIP pavilion, an airfield ground lightingsystem and communication systems, and supply of someservice equipment which include ambulances, universaltowing vehicles, airside buses and fire-fighting vehicles.Airport manager Margaret Samkange told the PortfolioCommittee on Transport recently after a tour byParliamentarians that: “We are very happy with the newdevelopments and the contractor is putting in a lot ofeffort, and the contractor works at night to avoid disruptingflights.”Political and economic reformsThe Second Republic naturally had the difficult task ofre-balancing the economy and instituting far-reachingpolitical reforms to demonstrate to the world that it wasdeparting from the previous administration.Reforms were to cut across media and political reforms.The Maintenance of Peace and Order Act (MOPA), which replaces POSA – which was seen as repressive – is now law.Three pieces of legislation to replace the Access toInformation and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), whichwas also seen as an affront to media freedom, have madestrong progress in Parliament.The Complaints Mechanism Bills has been drafted, whilethe Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency(ZIDA) Bill is in the final stage of Parliamentary approvalprocesses, and is set to become law in the near future.A key piece of the reforms puzzle, the ZimbabweInvestment and Development Agency (ZIDA) Bill, wasgazetted in April 2019.It will among other things, seek to curb the plundering of the environment by big investors, while also addressing the ease of doing business to attract more foreign directinvestment (FDI).The ZIDA Bill also seeks to establish the managementand finances of the new ZIDA and its one-stop investmentservices centre, which will guarantee that investors areattended to speedily, and not shunted from one corner tothe other.Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr SibusisoMoyo, told diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe during acocktail on December 4 2019 that ‘steady progress’ hasbeen recorded in the reform process.“Hand in hand with the economic reform measuresintroduced and the painful structural adjustment thosemeasures have brought about, has been the parallelprocess of political and legislative reform,” said MinisterMoyo.“Slower than we had promised and slower than we hadhoped for, these reforms are nevertheless progressingsteadily.” World Bank, IMF re-engagementHarare is pressing ahead with the re-engagement ofinternational financial institutions.Finance and Economic Development Minister, ProfessorMthuli Ncube has engaged key financiers such as theWorld Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ina bid to stabilise relations.A report on the implementation of the Second 100-DayCycle released recently shows that Government embarkedon the engagements to try and strike agreements on theclearance of US$1,8 billion debt and arrears.The international financial institutions were largelyimpressed by the ongoing economic reform trajectorybeing implemented under the Transitional StabilisationProgramme (TSP).The TSP is a short-term economic blueprint that runsfrom October 2018 to December 2020.Roundtable meetings with the IMF and the World Bank,alongside the IMF Spring Meetings have since been held“to facilitate the unlocking of new funding and clearance ofdebts and arrears.”“Pursuant to the re-engagement thrust, bilateral meetingswere held with the African Development Bank (AfDB),UK, EU, US State Department, Sweden, Germany and theDepartment for International Development (DFID) whereinZimbabwe was commended for progress achieved in itseconomic reform trajectory.“An agreement was reached with IMF on the StaffMonitored Programme,” reads the Second 100-Day Cyclereport.During the roundtable meetings, an agreement wasreached with the IMF on Staff Monitored Programme(SMP).At the end of May, the IMF approved a one-year SMP forZimbabwe aimed at supporting Government’s reformagenda.The IMF conceded that Government was keen to,“addressing the macroeconomic imbalances, removingstructural distortions to facilitate a resumption in growth,and to re-engaging with the international communityincluding by clearing its external arrears.”Roads projects update reportPresident Mnangagwa has declared that Zimbabwe’sinfrastructure needs transformation. He has tried to attendto all aspects of infrastructure deficiencies.While talk has largely centred on the Beitbridge-HarareChirunduHighway,which is naturally a humongous project with innumerablebenefits, many others have been attended to.Refreshingly, work on the 964km Beitbridge-HarareChirunduHighway has started in earnest.Five companies have been enlisted and three are alreadyon the ground working on separate stretches of thehighway. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the projectshould be completed in 2023.The tender for the dualisation of the Beitbridge-BulawayoVictoriaFalls highway has been awarded to a South Africanfirm, Khato Civils and South Zambezi.Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, JoelBiggie Matiza said: “We are moving with speed to dualiseour major highways that will give us quick returns.”The President has already officially opened the US$20million rehabilitated Ngundu-Tanganda highway in amove set to spur economic activity.The road was badly damaged due to years of neglect.It links Manicaland and Masvingo provinces via Chiredzi,and also links the Eastern Highlands to South Africa,which is Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner. SaidPresident Mnangagwa while officially opening thehighway: “I remember when the new administration tookover, we were told by then Minister of State for ManicalandProvincial Affairs Monica Mutsvangwa that a number ofaccidents were occurring here. “We were told a section of the highway had become ablack spot.“We ordered that the area be rehabilitated. “It was rehabilitated under Phase One.“After the rehabilitation of that phase, we continued torecord accidents along this highway.”Government has also deployed US$10 million for thetarring of the 300km Karoi-Binga Road. The entire projectrequires US$300 million.The Mt Darwin-MukumburaHighway has also been revamped, with 16km being tarredand 36km remaining to get to Mukumbura Border.The development will enhance trade between Zimbabweand Mozambique. Government is self-funding most roadsprojects to minimise on burdening future generations withhuge sums of debt.The construction of a 60 metre-long new bridge on RuyaRiver, which is now 95 percent complete, is also expectedto improve access to Karanda Mission Hospital, situated inrural Mt Darwin District. It is expected to be commissionedby Christmas Day.Affordable, top-notch urban transportThe biggest threat to most employees’ earnings was thepersistent rise in commuter fares, not to mention longdistance buses. But one moment of genius by President Mnangagwa andhis administration, saw the re-introduction of ZUPCObuses, first in urban areas.Now these buses are now plying long-distance routes,offering affordable fares to citizens. Already, there areabout 516 conventional buses and 410 kombis, all ferryingpeople for $2 in urban centres, compared to up to $10charged by private operators.More buses are expected, and at peak, will reach 3 000buses. In the short-term, the ZUPCO fleet is set to bemade up of 1 000, and with proper management, whichGovernment seeks to usher in through the Public EntitiesCorporate Governance Act, the fleet will grow. The ZUPCObuses have become popular and more buses are expectedfrom China, South Africa and Belarus.In the 2020 national Budget, the mass public transportsystem was allocated $540 million as a subsidy.Support for women, youthsWomen and youths have been marginalised for a longtime. But the Second Republic has seen value in supportingthese key groups of people.Prof Ncube reassured them in the 2020 National Budgetthat Government will continue to play its role in capitalisingvarious institutions that support women, youth andmedium and small scale enterprises (MSMEs).He said Government will facilitate access to markets,workspace, trade promotion and capacity building, amongother critical support. “In 2020, the Budget provides for capitalisation of thefollowing institutions, which support various MSMEsprojects: Women Development Fund, $20 million;Community Development Fund, $15 million; ZimbabweWomen Microfinance Bank, $100 million; SMEDCO, $90million; and Empowerbank, $50 million,” said Prof Ncube.There will be specific allocations in support of projects andprogrammes aimed at empowering women, including thecompletion of refurbishment of training centres – JamaicaInn and Rodger Howman, and the construction of safe