Online Reporter
Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga toured exhibition stands after his arrival in Victoria Falls yesterday and encouraged the region to seize the momentum created by a rapidly changing energy landscape to ensure it is not left behind in the fourth industrial revolution.
“Right now we are going into a fourth industrial revolution. You know, we had the first industrial revolution, which was driven by Europeans on their own, but this fourth industrial revolution requires everyone — and Africa cannot be left behind. More importantly, Southern Africa cannot be left behind,” said VP Chiwenga.
“We are the owners of all the God‑given resources, and we need to turn those resources into value if we are to have meaningful economic growth. What we are seeing here, both from the green energy initiatives and Batoka, which we think now is going to be realised, means that the major enabler for any economic growth is now here.
“A lot of people make the mistake of thinking energy is an economic product; no, it’s an enabler for any activity to take place, be it in industry, in agriculture, or in mining. You need energy.”
He added that the exhibitions and some ideas coming from local institutions of higher learning were encouraging.
“More importantly, the region has now come together to say, let’s put our minds together, let’s see how we can generate energy for ourselves, and how we can then eventually distribute it across the countries for economic growth,” said VP Chiwenga.
