Kwekwe dangle investment opportunities
By Staff Reporter
Kwekwe City Council is dangling investment opportunities within the local authority in various areas which includes biogas production, solar power generation, quarry stones crushing and water bottling.
Kwekwe City Finance Committee Chairperson Silas Mukaro has said local authority is providing an enabling environment for private sector investment to thrive.
“This has seen more investors coming to invest in the City. New investment companies like Global Union Alloys, Bentouch, OK Zimbabwe (Bon Marché), DCK, Dendairy and Zimasco will lead to employment creation (1000), increased local GDP and improved standard of living in the district. Kwekwe City is working closely with the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) in packaging and marketing investment opportunities existing in the city. Priority investment includes biogas production, solar power generation, quarry stones crushing and water bottling,” he said.
He added that the city has investment opportunities for strategic partnership areas such as wire making, iron and steel, ferrochrome, fertiliser manufacturing, mining and other related industries.
“The city has the best quality drinking water in the counrt6yy in terms of World Health Standards, the water is also adequately reticulated 24/7 to all residential, industrial, commercial areas, including neighbouring Municipality of Redcliff. For sustainability in providing this basic need, the city intends to expand the water treatment plant as least double capacity by 2030 to cater for increase in population due to city expansion,” he said.
Mukaro said Kwekwe has prime serviced land for the new CBD Railway Reserve and commercial malls are earmarked to be developed at Mbizo 21, 17, Extension and South wood Shopping Centres.
“These mega developoemnts will truly move Kwekwe City towards a smart city status by 2030 brought by private sector driven development. Our local authority will consider borrowing funds to finance this projects. The city is going to grow the housing units through high rise buildings under the urban renewal programme.
“Manufacturing industry will contribute greatly by at least 2 percent contribution to the provincial GDP by 2030. Main projects subsectors which investor are encouraged to undertake are milk processing, and mineral beneficiation and iron and steel works investments in these areas will definitely move the national economy up the value chain and in attaining macroeconomic stability,” he said.
Mukaro said the local authority is set to deliberately include Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the industrialization drive.
“In line with this drive, appropriate infrastructure for this category of business shall be built in partnership with Development Partners and BOT strategies, Deliberate actions reserving a third of the industrial stands to be allocated to SMES has been considered such that by 2030 we would have SMES contributing a significant percentage to the GDP of Kwekwe especially in the manufacturing sector,” he said.
