Confuse about the "go off" here in the sentence?

Question

Gary Evans, strategist at HSBC in Tokyo, says the market is reacting to both the government's strategy and its plan for economic reform. "The government has now decided the overall vision in seven different areas, the ministers have to @@go off@@ and come up with a specific proposal ready to go to the Diet session that starts in the Fall. That's not the way it's been done in Japan in the past it's always been much more ad hoc. This is at least a process where we can see what's going on."

Q: You don't bother to explain the whole sentence. The only place where I don't understand is what the "go off" means above. I don't udnerstand why it says "the minister has to go off and come up with specific proposals", rather than just "the minister has to come up with ...". Where is the difference between the two? What meaning is added to by "go off"?

Thank you!

Answer 1

The phrase "to go off and *do something*" means that the person or people "going off" are leaving one situation to prepare or engage in an activity before returning to the situation with their results.

So, I might be at work and having trouble with a project. I could tell my boss, "I'm going to go off and get some research done before I can present my project at our meeting."

This means I'm going to leave work, go do something (research) and then come back to finish my project and show it to my boss.

Answer 2

it sounds like the "go off" part is a bit colloquial. it's essentially the same thing as "the minister has to come up with...", just a little more informal.

Answer 3

To 'go off' in this context means to go away somewhere, and it's implied that the ministers are going to have a meeting.

It isn't really necessary to say this, because '..the ministers have to come up with a specific proposal...' would convey the meaning quite adequately.

Answer 4

Could be "go off" in the sense of "leave" or "proceed", or maybe they meant "go back (to the drawing board) (to comittee) (to meeting/consultation)".