The Sunday News
Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
VICE-PRESIDENT Kembo Mohadi has called for the need to accelerate investment and the industrialisation of Beitbridge town in recognition of its rapid socio and economic growth in the last decade.
He said the town was one of the fastest growing urban settlements in the country and that businesses should look at the vast opportunities to its (town) recent declaration as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).
The Vice-President said Beitbridge was the face of the country for many visitors entering from South Africa and that it played a key role in national economic development and hence the need to speed up its modernisation.
He made the remarks in a speech read on his behalf by Matabeleland South’s Minister of State for Provincial Affairs, Cde Abednico Ncube during the official opening of the Beitbridge Business Expo which ran under the theme “Business 24 seven” recently.
“Our Government has declared Beitbridge a Special Economic Zone together with Bulawayo, Harare’s Sunway City, Victoria Falls, Mutare and Masvingo,” said Vice-President Mohadi.
“We want to see a lot of investment and development in Beitbridge as the centre of logistics for Zimbabwe.
“Beitbridge needs to quickly industrialise capitalising on the economic activities around the town and district as the leading producers of oranges, beef and goat meat.
“In addition, we do have an enabling transport network, abundant water resources in the Zhovhe Dam, what can stop us? We can only blame ourselves if there were problems given the abundance of water which we have from the Limpopo River and Zhovhe Dam.
“We also have rich soils good for agriculture and we should utilise this to the maximum.”
He said stakeholders and businesses in the border town should think outside the box about the various value addition enterprises and establish plants for finished products in juice, beef or goat meat and tannery.
Vice-President Mohadi said it was high time the exports of raw products was minimised and that there were great benefits to value addition which include earning foreign currency and creation of employment opportunities for many citizens..
He said Government was ready and willing to support all those wishing to venture into product processing.
“The Business Expo is in line with our mantra ‘Zimbabwe is Open for Business’ and I am proud that a municipality like Beitbridge, the window of Zimbabwe, has been able to host this.
“We appreciate the companies which decide to exhibit and see them as friends of Beitbridge and as such friends of Zimbabwe who wish to see and participate in our economic recovery strategies,” said the Vice-President.
He continued; “As Government, we need a collaborative approach to attract investment. This part of the country requires a paradigm shift to make it an investment destination as opposed to a transit town. We recognise the efforts by the locals to encourage and attract investment.”
He added that the town was of strategic importance to Zimbabwe and the region and that most businesses that are involved in export and imports have found a home in it.
Vice-President Mohadi also challenged the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education to establish institutes of higher learning in Beitbridge.
“These centres can specialise in researches on locally available products like cattle, the cross breeding of our beautiful animals, improvement of goat and sheep species and development of juices.
“We also challenge the institutions to open colleges that will develop animal grass and help the country rebuild its national herd at the same time re-establishing Zimbabwe as the work leader in beef production,” he said.
