The Sunday News
Prosper Ndlovu
THE 2023 Infrastructure Summit and Expo is underway in Victoria Falls where technical experts from different economic sectors, local authorities, key Government agencies, and policy makers are engaged in candid deliberations on how to scale up infrastructure development in the country to ensure attainment of Vision 2030 targets.
Since commencement of official proceedings in the morning, different speakers have hammered on the need to harness collective stakeholders efforts to rehabilitate, maintain and develop new infrastructure that suits the country’s tenacious develop trajectory.
In his welcome remarks this morning, Deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet, Mr Willard Manungo, said reclaiming the country’s rail, road and aviation infrastructure was a collective stakeholder responsibility as the Government cannot do it all alone given limited fiscal space.
Calling for speedy rehabilitation and maintenance of the rail infrastructure, Transport and Infrastructural Development secretary, Engineer Theodius Chinyanga, said the overeliance on road infrastructure has led to the fast decay of major roads, which induces a huge cost burden to the economy.
Infrastructural Development Bank of Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Dr Thomas Zondo-Sakala has concurred, stressing the need for Zimbabwe quickly upgrade it’s transport infrastructure to reap benefits of being a transit economy under the African regional integration focus.
National Railways of Zimbabwe general manager, Ms Respina Zinyanduko, has said inadequate access to long term financing due to the adverse impact of sanctions was straining effective transformation of the railway transport system.
While deliberations are continuing, President Mnangagwa and his deputy, Dr Constantino Chiwenga, are set to join delegates in tomorrow’s official opening session to listen and share their insights.
Robust infrastructure development is at the heart of the Second Republic’s economic transformation agenda in line with the country’s vision to achieve an upper middle-income status by 2030.
The second edition of the Infrastructure Summit and Expo is being hosted by the National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF, the country’s think tank on economic and social policy issues.
