Mnangagwa on real economic test

Barely in less than month since the president has Emmerson Mnangagwa assumed the office, a number of striking developments have taken place. In his November inaugural speech last year, the focus was on reviving the country's economy which was already on its knees.

For the past ten months, the president has been hitting the ground preaching the gospel of opening Zimbabwe's business forum.  In January this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he echoed his sentiments by alluding that, Zimbabwe was open for business for every sector with the exception of diamond sector where there was no clear provision.

Also in his August inaugural speech, the president emphasised that the strength of our country relied on the strength of our economy.

However, all these efforts and deliberations by Mnangagwa have been left to scrutiny. They have been received with mixed feelings from the Zimbabweans generally. It's up to the citizens' judgment.  

Last week President Emmerson Mnangagwa officially opened the Hopeville Housing Project and commissioned a $2 million tomato processing plant in Bulawayo on Thursday afternoon.

The projects are situated in the outskirts of the city centre before the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport and are expected to help turn around the country's economy as well as promote job opportunities.

The president has shown some interest in reviving the long marginalized Matabeleland. For the past decades, the western region has remained doomed economically.

Officially commissioning the two projects, the President said they were key in the development of Bulawayo.

"These two projects are critical building blocks towards the revival of Bulawayo and the attainment of the desire to create decent jobs and an improved quality of life of our citizens," he said.

President Mnangagwa said his government welcomed such initiatives that were vital to the revival of Bulawayo industries. He also said there was need to develop vibrant agro processing industry to aid in the uptake of the country's primary produce.

"The tomato processing plant is a welcome initiative as it resonates with our call for the value addition and beneficiation of the countries agricultural produce. To date we have received more investors that are interested in further developing and constructing more agro based industries to process vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy products," he said.

The president commended the employment of women, men and young people who run the plant and work there. The tomato plant has created income for over 4000 people in the rural areas that produce tomatoes.

"There is no more setting by the road side selling tomatoes, you just produce them and bring them to the plant and you are paid. I urge all farmers throughout the country to focus on increasing productivity in every sphere of our agricultural sector," he said.

 "There is need for adoption and adaption of appropriate technologies in the agro processing industries especially in view of the growth of micro and small sale farmers across the country. It is very possible to make Matabeleland green," he said.

Turning to the Hopeville Housing project which is at a cost of $2billion he said it has immense benefits downstream industries and said the is need for a municipality due to the magnitude of the project which is going to be bigger than Gwanda town.

It is an up-market satellite town spearheaded by Thompson Properties and when complete, the area will have over 20 000 up-market housing units, a shopping mall and state of the art recreational facility.

He said in the spirit of devolution, provinces must make an effort to do projects that will change their fortunes like the ones witnessed in Bulawayo.

"Provincial councils must plan the growth of their economies well and mordenising their surroundings. I recommended other provinces to come and see what the people of Bulawayo are doing in terms of developing the economy," he said.

Such projects will go a long way in fulfilling the vision of the people of Zimbabwe.