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Political reforms key, Vision 2030 team says

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 12 – The Vision 2030 Secretariat says political reforms hold the key to the speedy attainment of some key economic pillars in the development blueprint.

Vision 2030 Secretariat Director General Mugo Kibati says that while a number of flagship projects had kicked off, the political pillar sets the legal framework necessary in creating the governance structures for economic development.

He stressed that many projects under the economic pillar would only kick off until political stability is created in the country.

"Once that is ironed out then the economic pillar becomes easy, so you will find that many projects will only properly take off once the foundations and the political pillar are well underway," Mr Kibati said.

He said next year\’s General Election was piling some pressure on how fast key reforms such as judicial and electoral restructuring are carried out.

"I think it has always been known that this would be the most complicated bit but the most important at the same time. Some of the pressure you are seeing is due to the elections but I\’m confident that everything will be in place by next year," he said.

His sentiments come as concern has been rising over the slow pace of rolling out projects envisioned under Vision 2030 that aims to transform Kenya into an industrialised middle income state within the next 20 years.

He said that initial focus has been on investment in physical infrastructure like ICT, energy, roads and seaports to create access to markets and stimulate economic growth.

"When you look at Vision 2030 and ask why certain projects haven\’t taken off, they can\’t take off until certain basic ones have taken off and that is why infrastructure is crucial," he said.

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The Second Annual Report indicating above average performance in implementing medium term goals showed that the government consistently surpassed its targets on revenue collection, development spending, broad money supply to the economy and credit to private sector over the period.

The government also stayed within its target on current account and external debt management.

Mr Kibati however pointed out that there had been a challenge in meeting its target for real GDP growth, employment creation, overall inflation, import cover and national savings.

"In terms of jobs we were off target by 300,000 jobs as the economy did not create as many jobs as envisioned in the medium term plan but it is achievable," Mr Kibati said.

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