adminOliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
THE TransLimpopo Spatial Development Initiative joint executive committee has met the new Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs in Matabeleland region to brief them on the progress it is making towards promoting trade and investment.TransLimpopo Spatial Development Initiative was mooted in 2001 when South Africa and Zimbabwe signed a bilateral economic pact to increase investment in Matabeleland and South Africa’s Limpopo Province.
In 2004, the TransLimpopo Spatial Development Initiative came up with a road map to attract investment to Matabeleland region but no projects have been implemented 10 years on.
This was because the concept was downplayed by almost every stakeholder involved in the initiative.
“As the joint executive committee we have finalised the work plan and we have met the new Provincial Affairs Ministers in Matabeleland region to let them appreciate that there is a programme (to promote trade and investment under the TransLimpopo Spatial Development Initiative) of that nature. Moreso, it is a programme to come up with development in the region,” said the TransLimpopo Spatial Development Initiative co-chairperson Obert Sibanda in a telephone interview yesterday.
“The Provincial Affairs Ministers have indicated that they are committed to work with us.”
He said the joint executive committee and their South African counterparts would soon be meeting after the general elections in the neighbouring country to agree on a final work plan. South Africa will hold the elections in May.
“Some of our members were in South Africa recently for the Amarula Festival and we managed to meet some of our counterparts on the sidelines of the festival. We agreed that after the elections in South Africa, we will immediately meet to agree on a final work plan,” said Sibanda.
In January, the local TransLimpopo Spatial Development Initiative told this paper that it had come up with its final draft of a work plan to be presented to its South African counterparts.
It is hoped that if stakeholders from the two countries accede to the final draft work plan, progress with regards to investment promotion under the initiate would begin.
The work plan looks at identifying and consolidating investment opportunities in the region.
Some of the possible projects that have so far been identified include coal and coal-bed methane gas extraction and processing in Matabeleland North, feedlots, irrigation schemes and tourism operations in Matabeleland South presently underutilised.
In addition, attention will also be made to package green projects and resuscitating ailing firms through joint-venture initiatives in Bulawayo with South African investors.
Bulawayo, once the industrial hub of Zimbabwe, has been the hardest hit by de-industrialisation facing the country at large due to economic challenges.
In recent years, a number of city firms have either closed shop or relocated to other parts of the country resulting in thousands of workers becoming redundant.
Online Reporter