The Sunday News
TRANSPORT and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu will on Wednesday be the guest of honour at Zimpapers’ second business breakfast meeting where industrialists and other stakeholders will interrogate how southern Zimbabwe, once the country’s industrial hub, can benefit from Chinese investment.
Industry and Commerce Minister Mr Mike Bimha is among the key speakers, while businessman Mr Herbert Nkala will be the moderator at the meeting to be held in Bulawayo.
Zimpapers is holding interactive meetings to unpack the various deals signed between Zimbabwe and China during President Mugabe’s State visit to the Asian country late last month.
The Bulawayo meeting — to be held by the Chronicle — follows one in Harare last Wednesday by The Herald Business.
A third meeting, focused on mining and held by The Manica Post, is scheduled for Mutare and then another one prioritising tourism will be held in Victoria Falls under the auspices of Zim Travel.
Zimpapers group chief operating officer and editor-in-chief Mr Pikirayi Deketeke said the Bulawayo meeting would explore opportunities around infrastructure.
Mr Deketeke said the series of meetings would reveal the thinking and attitudes of stakeholders, and enable them to gauge whether they were ready to take in Chinese investments.
“The (Bulawayo) meeting will look at all issues around the Chinese investment.
“Rehabilitation of our transport infrastructure is key to industry and economic upturn . . . Zimbabwe is strategically positioned and can be a central hub in terms of transportation of goods into the region.
“We want to give businesses and the ordinary man on the street an opportunity to interrogate Government on opportunities likely to emerge out of Chinese investment.”
Industry has borne the brunt of deteriorating economic conditions brought about by 14 years of United States and European Union sanctions, ageing infrastructure, inefficiencies and private and public sector corruption.
Rehabilitating road and rail networks is critical to unlock real value through employment creation and ease of doing business.
Some industrialists blame the country’s poor railway network for low performance in the manufacturing sector, where capacity utilisation stands at 39 percent.
