Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
THE inaugural Infrastructure Summit organised by the National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF) has started in Victoria Falls amid calls for the private sector to come to the party and partner the Government in infrastructure development.
President Mnangagwa is expected to officially open the event tomorrow under the theme: “Harnessing the potential of Public Private Partnerships to resolve infrastructure challenges in Zimbabwe.”
In his welcome remarks, Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet and NECF steering committee co-chair Ambassador Nicholas Dlamini Kitikiti said there is a need to put heads together to come up with solutions to challenges affecting the country’s infrastructure development.
Lack of financing systems or slow release of funds, volatile economic environment and unattractive balance sheet, lack of interest from the private sector to venture into infrastructure development and lack of expertise are some of the cross-cutting challenges facing Zimbabwe in project development.
The idea of coming up with the summit on infrastructure was born out of stakeholder engagements that the NECF undertook early this year.
“While recognising the great efforts by Government in terms of developing and financing infrastructure as the nation seeks to deliver on National Development Strategy (NDS1) objectives and move towards the achievement of Vision 2030, stakeholders highlighted the need to also crowd-in private sector players bridging the infrastructure financing gap, through models such as public-private partnerships.
“The need for creating an enabling environment for the participation of such private players as well as ensuring strong coordination in the development and delivery of infrastructure projects was also emphasised. In light of the above, the NECF realised the need for a multi stakeholder dialogue on infrastructure development,” said Ambassador Kitikiti.
In that regard, he said, the major objective of the gathering is aimed at finding ways of putting into practice known and novel ways of addressing challenges affecting infrastructure development in Zimbabwe with a particular focus on public-private partnerships (PPPs).
The conference seeks to come up with an effective implementation roadmap for PPPs, share experiences, propose solutions for infrastructure challenges, dialogue with private sector, experts and other stakeholders, contribute to PPP policy review, and contribute to NDS1.
Ambassador Kitikiti said going forward, the event will be held annually with a view to take stock of achievements and identify gaps.
Various players in the country’s infrastructure development sector are attending the two-day event which comes as the Second Republic is working hard towards economic transformation through developments in key sectors such as infrastructure development, manufacturing, agriculture and mining.
From the morning discussions, the general feeling is that there is a need to make our infrastructure projects bankable and viable to attract investors who at the current situation feel most projects are social projects and present less room for them to recoup their investments.
@ncubeleon
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter