admin
Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter
Egypt has committed to assisting Zimbabwe in the construction of the new smart city in Mt Hampden, among other infrastructure projects, the country’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mahmoud Amer, said yesterday.
He said this after leading a three-member delegation from his country that came at the invitation of Government.
The Egyptian delegation’s visit follows a similar one by a Zimbabwe delegation to the North African country in February to assess their new administrative capital.
Ambassador Amer said the two countries enjoy cordial relations and that Egypt had a Pan-African policy under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of helping other African countries that are willing to work with Cairo.
“That’s why this delegation came to further deliberate with the Permanent Secretary (in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, Mr Zvinechimwe Churu) and his counterparts in Zimbabwe in order to help transfer the knowledge and expertise that they have gained in building the new administrative capital,” he said.
Ambassador Amer added that Egypt was also going through a massive overhaul of infrastructure in all sectors of life especially the rural areas under the three-year US$40 billion Decent Life Project, set to improve the livelihoods of 60 million people.
“This and other projects we are undertaking right now, have given the Egyptians expertise in building infrastructure, construction of new cities and roads. On that background, the Egyptian delegation has been sent here to focus on the needs of te Zimbabwean side in building a new city.
“They are coming to listen, interact and give their knowledge. Egyptian companies are keen and the Egyptian Government is keen and ready to work through with the Zimbabwean Government in order bring about the aspirations of Zimbabwean people and Vision 2030, which we in Egypt support and we would want to help.”
The head of Egypt’s new administrative capital project in the Ministry of Housing, Mr Sherif Al Sherbeny, said they had done big projects in their country and were willing to share their experiences with their Zimbabwean counterparts.
In his remarks, Mr Churu said they visited Egypt to learn from what the Egyptians were doing as they carried out the construction of their new administrative capital, especially on mass urban transportation.
“The whole idea was to ensure that when we come up with our new city, the infrastructure, the planning is notched at the top most level. We already have a draft master plan which will be approved in the coming few months and was designed by Zimbabweans but we thought that we needed a partner that will validate it and ensure that the plan that will come out represents the best practices in every sense,” Mr Churu said.
President Mnangagwa last week broke the ground on the building site of a multi-million-dollar Zim Cyber City in Mt Hampden to herald the beginning of the construction of Harare’s new central business district, which will straddle across 15 500 hectares of land
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter