Online Reporter
Zvamaida Murwira in BAKU, Azerbaijan
ZIMBABWE has benefited immensely from its participation at the World Urban Forum, where world leaders and stakeholders agreed that housing provision should be accompanied by the construction of industry to create both accommodation and employment, Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga has said.
He said the forum, held in Azerbaijan, emphasised the need for collaboration between the Government and the private sector in the provision of housing for sustainable development, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
VP Chiwenga, who was representing President Mnangagwa, led the Zimbabwe delegation attending the forum, which included Cabinet ministers, local authorities and senior Government officials.
In an interview after completing his tour of duty, VP Chiwenga said Zimbabwe drew many lessons from the forum that it could build on in line with its thrust to attain an upper middle-class income economy by 2030.
“Zimbabwe greatly benefited from this conference. As you are aware, this is a conference that groups the entire world to look at the challenges that are affecting our people across the globe.”
Can government officials stop gallivanting all over the world please? This country cannot afford such luxuries. In a world where people can effortlessly link up Online and discuss issues, why should government officials fly all the way to such funny countries for useless stuff like that? How many times have huge delegations flown out for this show and that show so far this year? What benefits are these excursions bringing for our country? Now that a government will be in place for seven years and a president for fourteen years, with this amount of gallivanting around the world, we should be prepared to work very hard for these luxuries by government officials. I thought the President had put a stop to such useless (yes this is useless) trips? Was he just bluffing?