Prime Minister unveils 2013/14 govt strategy

Prime Minister Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, yesterday, presented to both chambers of Parliament highlights of activities government plans to implement in the financial year 20013/2014. The activities range from welfare, economy to governance and justice with specific targets. Habumuremyi unveiled a water and energy plan, whereby government intends to increase electricity by 100 megawatts that will see Rwanda have a total 210 megawatts of electricity on the national power grid by the end of the fiscal year. The increase will see the number of people accessing electricity jump from 360,000 (16 per cent) by end of 2012 to 450,000 (20 per cent).Although Rwanda is among the first countries in Africa to have achieved the Millennium Development Goals on water and sanitation, not all Rwandans access clean water. “We plan to increase the number of people accessing clean water by 5.3 per cent (from 7,818,619 to 8,352,287), which will bring the total number of Rwandans accessing clean water to 80 per cent,” the Prime Minister said. He also told lawmakers that 440 kilometres of pipelines will be laid out in rural areas while 280 kilometres will be laid in towns and cities. According to information from the Ministry of Infrastructure, the country needs investments worth $3 billion to increase access to water from 74 per cent to 100 per cent and access to electricity from 17 per cent to 70 per cent by 2018.The overall energy production target is to see 563 megawatts by 2017 from hydropower and other alternative energy sources like solar, peat and geothermal energy. This would significantly reduce the country’s electricity deficit.Agriculture sectorFor agriculture to contribute to GDP, government plans to implement a number of activities this fiscal year ranging from increasing the cultivatable terraces to improving land consolidation mechanisms. “In the first season of 2014, we will consolidate 612,031 hectares of land, while in the second we are targeting to consolidate 596,844 hectares,” said Habumuremyi. “Mineral production will increase from 7,630 tonnes to 9,800 tonnes, we will boost the Karuruma cassiterite factory while small scale miners will be assisted in operating through cooperatives.”The government has prioritised nutrition in the welfare cluster, where a study is to be conducted on children under the age of five countrywide to know the exact status of malnutrition. “We intend to construct temporary kitchens in 1,000 villages across the country that would be used to educate people on how to prepare a balanced meal,” the premier said. He added that in the health sector, 17 medical specialists will be hired, as well as 85 general practitioners and 533 nurses.In education, 2000 classrooms are to be constructed under the 12 Year-Basic Education programme, while 35,000 laptops will be given to primary school children under the One-Laptop-Per-Child programme.In the governance cluster, a citizen report card is to be introduced where members of the public will evaluate the performance of the government, while improved service delivery will be among the core commitments of every public agency, said the Prime Minister. The justice cluster, according to Habumuremyi, dwells more on improving the performance of courts, social security, and fighting against genocide ideology. EDPRS IIThe government’s plan this fiscal year is to spend 50 per cent of the Rwf1.6 trillion budget on development activities planned under the second phase of the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS II).The allocation of resources to the EDPRS II took into account four thematic areas of economic transformation (Rwf459 billion), rural development(Rwf164 billion), productivity and youth employment (Rwf163 billion), as well as accountable governance (Rwf41 billion).Up to 37 per cent of the budget was allocated to what the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning described as ‘foundational issues’ in the country’s life such as health, education, and social protection.Reacting to government plan, yesterday, lawmakers said they were impressed with the plan, with most of them advising the government on how to improve it while others called for coordination of activities.“The figures on access to clean water are very impressive but when we go down in the village we find completely a different scenario. If government could connect electricity to all water sources to pump the water then people wouldn’t be complaining; but what happens is that pumping water using generators is very expensive and government can’t afford it on a daily basis,” MP Jean Marie Vianney Gatabazi said. MP Connie Bwiza said there is need to better coordinate government activities to avoid mismatches, an idea the Prime Minister said was already being considered. “We are a developing nation that counts every coin precious, we can’t afford to lose a single penny. That’s why we need to ensure we don’t have any mismatches,” Bwiza said. Previously, government would set the Budget Ceiling before setting priorities but to avoid mismatches, it resorted to setting priorities before going into the financial breakdowns.

National

Prime Minister unveils 2013/14 govt strategy