Chronicle Editor
ZIMBABWEANS on Friday celebrated yet another milestone when President Mnangagwa commissioned the refurbished Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare whose upgrade cost US$153 million. This was just a week after President Mnangagwa commissioned the US$300 million Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe Plant in Goromonzi, Mashonaland East province.
The new-look RGM International Airport will see passenger capacity growing from 2,5 million per year to over six million and more airlines are expected to fly direct to Harare thereby boosting the country’s tourism.
The airport upgrade is one of the country’s signature projects funded by the Chinese Government, a confirmation of the strong bilateral relations between the two countries.
President Mnangagwa said when he paid a State visit to the People’s Republic of China in 2018, his counterpart President Xi Jinping made an undertaking to fund four major projects that included the refurbishment of the RGM International Airport.
The other projects are the New Parliament Building which has been completed at a cost of US$100 million, the US$1,4 billion Hwange Thermal Power Station Unit 7 and 8 expansion project and a Computer Centre at the University of Zimbabwe.
The Hwange Unit 7 and 8 which are expected to be commissioned soon, are already feeding 600MW into the national grid hence the country is now meeting its daily electricity demand of about 2 000MW.
Zimbabwe which is still under illegal Western sanctions, has resolved to use its own resources to implement its industrialisation and modernisation programme hence the many projects being implemented across the country.
What is comforting is that most of the infrastructural projects such as roads, bridges and dams construction are being undertaken by local companies.
The commissioning of the PLZ Plant in Goromonzi was a bold statement that the US$12 billion mining industry target by the end of the year will be realised if not surpassed.
The implementation of the many development projects across the country is a confirmation that Government is unstoppable in its quest to ensure the country becomes an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
Much to the chagrin of the country’s detractors, many investors are responding to the “Zimbabwe is Open for Business” mantra. The country is in fact, fast becoming an investment destination of choice in the region and beyond.
In the past few years, Zimbabwe has witnessed unprecedented levels of investment as well as fast pace of project implementation which has been attributed to the enabling investment and business operating environment created by the Second Republic.
Online Reporter