'Beitbridge ready for investment'

Beitbridge Municipality needs to embrace private public partnerships (PPPS) to accelerate development and enhance its economic status, district administrator, Mrs Kiliboni Ndou-Mbedzi, said.

She said the recent upgrading of the town into a municipality comes with a lot of challenges and expectations from various stakeholders, which will require the local authority to up its game. Mrs Ndou-Mbedzi was speaking during a function held to celebrate the town's upgrading last Thursday.

"The town is ready for investment. A number of investment models can be adopted to accelerate service delivery, economic and social development," said Mrs Ndou-Mbedzi.

"These include private public partnerships, build, operate and transfer (BOT) and the built own operate and transfer (BOOT) initiatives. In addition, this is an opportunity for any serious investor to take up so that you are identified with a focused and prosperous town that prides itself as an investor friendly zone."

The event was attended by mayors, council chairperson and local Government gurus and businessmen from all the 31 urban councils. President Mnangagwa upgraded the town to a municipality on March 9, 2018 as part of Government's drive to accelerate urban development.

Mrs Ndou-Mbedzi said the availability of the Zimbabwe Investment Authority complex in the town also presents an optimal environment to turn the area into a dry port.

She said Beitbridge had investment opportunities in the tourism, education, health, transport and logistics, housing and property development, small to medium enterprises and infrastructure development sectors, among others.

"It is also important for investors to take advantage of the town's proximity to South Africa, which runs the biggest economy on the continent, where raw materials and markets for goods and service are readily available.

"Further, Beitbridge has strong transport network for rail, road and air facilities to enhance trade and other economic activities," said Mrs Ndou-Mbedzi.

Speaking at the same event Mayor of Musina Councillor Mhlophe Ethel Mihloti said it was very critical for the two towns to collaborate on economic and social development initiatives.

"We need to continue working together under the premise of our 2004 twinning agreement so that we may develop on the same wave length.

"We have similar opportunities in terms of investment and also share cross cutting challenges of service delivery and accommodating the transit population," she said.

The Mayor of Beitbridge Councillor Showa Moyo said: "A municipality is a huge responsibility that will require us working together as stakeholders. The road ahead is filled with challenges and we will fight to overcome these challenges.

"We are fortunate that already there are sister municipalities and cities who have walked through the journey before us who are willing to share critical knowledge on accelerated development primed to improve service delivery," she said.

Masvingo Town Clerk Mr Adolf Gusha said it was important for the town's administrators and policy makers to ensure they moved with one shared vision to sustain issues of corporate governance and meet the demands that came with urban development.