Zimpapers to meet Bulawayo businesses

Farai Kuvirimirwa Herald Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Newspapers Group (Zimpapers) will host breakfast meetings with the business community and government ministries in three more centres across the country following one hosted yesterday in Harare by Herald Business addressed by Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Zimpapers group chief operations officer Pikirayi Deketeke said three more would be held in Bulawayo, Mutare and Victoria Falls.
“It is a continuity of the platform which we’ve always created on our newspapers, digital media and radio.

“After the Harare breakfast meeting, we move to Bulawayo where we will be looking at industry and infrastructure.
“We will bring together the business community and look at what has happened in terms of that area in Bulawayo, with focus on President Robert Mugabe’s recent trip to China and how deals struck there will help in reviving the city’s industrial sector. The meeting will be hosted by The Chronicle,” he said.

Deketeke said the Bulawayo meeting would be held next week on Wednesday and the idea was to bring the Ministers of Industry and Commerce and his Transport and Infrastructure Development counterpart to meet the business community.

He added: “The two ministers who look after the infrastructure will meet the business community so that they can interrogate the opportunities which can arise.

“The other week’s Wednesday we will head to Mutare and do one on mining and agriculture. Hopefully, we will bring the Ministers of Mines and of Agriculture so that they meet the business community.
“It will be hosted by The Manica Post.

“We will focus on mining in Mutare because of the centrality of diamond mining and the relevance to the business community. We are sure they have concerns they want to express.”

Deketeke said in the fourth week, a breakfast meeting would held in Victoria Falls to delve into tourism and unlocking the potential of visits from Asia.
“We will see how we can unlock the potential of tourist arrivals from Asia.

“It will create that dialogue between the business community in the tourism sector and government as we roll out into creating business briefs with industry leaders.

“Everyone is invited to come to the event and we’re not limiting ourselves and the whole idea is to have that intimate engagement between the government and the business leadership in terms of programmes that the government is embarking on and how they benefit business and the economy.”