News / Regional
Beitbridge duty free shop to re-open
05 Sep 2015 at 13:19hrs | Views
THE Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, Sithembiso Nyoni, on Thursday toured the duty free shop at Beitbridge border post which is set to re-open early next month after a local company, Zidlee, invested more than $2 million to resuscitate it. The new look duty free shop will have a filling station, companies offering different services, fast food outlet and a shop which sales fast moving goods.
"We're impressed with the level of commitment and investments done by Zidlee which will give the border post a new look and also promote the marketing of Zimbabwean products," said the Minister.
"The shop will also provide a missing link for travellers going to both Zimbabwe and South Africa through Beitbridge border post."
Nyoni said the multi-million dollar building had been vandalised before the latest efforts to re-open the shop.
"We hope this shop will be of great service to the nation and travellers," she added.Zidlee has been leasing the building since its inception in the late 1990s but was struggling to run the duty free shop due to economic challenges.
Speaking during the same tour, Zidlee director, Terrence Mukupe, said renovations started in February after they came up with a new business development plan.
He said renovations were almost 90 percent complete and they had acquired most of the requisite items to get the shop running.
"The main idea is to make effective use of the building as well as promote the government's economic blueprint Zim-Asset through infrastructure and economic development. We will create employment for at least 45 people from Beitbridge. Currently we've 12 employees" he said.
"You'll note that we've a great market of close to 15,000 who access the border post on daily basis and who need food and other services while waiting for goods to be cleared by immigration and customs authorities".
Mukupe said they had already approached a number of local players to sell their products at the duty free shop.
He added that the resuscitation of the shop would also help reduce the flight of capital into South Africa at the expense of locally produced goods.
"Most of the products we sale here are bonded by Zimra and at any given time we can stock goods with a value of $1 million. The whole idea is to have money circulating in Zimbabwe by availing some of the products which people would want to import from the neighbouring country" said Mukupe.
"We're impressed with the level of commitment and investments done by Zidlee which will give the border post a new look and also promote the marketing of Zimbabwean products," said the Minister.
"The shop will also provide a missing link for travellers going to both Zimbabwe and South Africa through Beitbridge border post."
Nyoni said the multi-million dollar building had been vandalised before the latest efforts to re-open the shop.
"We hope this shop will be of great service to the nation and travellers," she added.Zidlee has been leasing the building since its inception in the late 1990s but was struggling to run the duty free shop due to economic challenges.
Speaking during the same tour, Zidlee director, Terrence Mukupe, said renovations started in February after they came up with a new business development plan.
"The main idea is to make effective use of the building as well as promote the government's economic blueprint Zim-Asset through infrastructure and economic development. We will create employment for at least 45 people from Beitbridge. Currently we've 12 employees" he said.
"You'll note that we've a great market of close to 15,000 who access the border post on daily basis and who need food and other services while waiting for goods to be cleared by immigration and customs authorities".
Mukupe said they had already approached a number of local players to sell their products at the duty free shop.
He added that the resuscitation of the shop would also help reduce the flight of capital into South Africa at the expense of locally produced goods.
"Most of the products we sale here are bonded by Zimra and at any given time we can stock goods with a value of $1 million. The whole idea is to have money circulating in Zimbabwe by availing some of the products which people would want to import from the neighbouring country" said Mukupe.
Source - chronicle
