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Minister Bimha

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha has commended the Industrial Development Corporation for its concerted efforts in developing the Sunway City Integrated Park, saying the developments are in line with Government’s policy of setting up Special Economic Zones to attract investment.

Minister Bimha said this during a tour of the Sunway City Integrated Park located along the Harare-Mutare highway that included several ministers, their deputies and permanent secretaries.

“People are quick to talk about company closures and retrenchments, but you will not find anyone here talking about the employment that you are creating,” said Minister Bimha .

“The Government is behind you. We have been having consultants coming to Zimbabwe and people talking about Special Economic Zones, but what you are doing here shows that you are at an advanced stage in the development in line with Government policy. One way of establishing an SEZ is through an industrial park especially this one which is integrated.”

The Sunway City Integrated Park comprises of residential stands, an industrial park and space for the establishment of a high technology park and specialist medical facilities.

IDC general manager Mr Mike Ndudzo said Sunway City had the potential to become a huge industrial and commercial hub when the envisaged projects were completed.

“Sunway City is a way to say how do we capacitate Zimbabwe as a country into a regional, cargo hub of Sadc and in addition how do we capture the high literacy rates we have.

“We can use this place to create the most equipped medical centres and have people flying here for medical attention.

“It will also have dry port facilities and logistics centre to receive all containerised traffic including Zimbabwe Revenue Authority offices,” said Mr Ndudzo .

Sunway City started as a joint venture company between IDC and a Malaysian company in the late 1990s, but the deal failed to take off following the financial turmoil in most Asian nations then just before Sunway City had approached the Malaysian Stock Exchange to seek $15 billion to fund the project.

Since then IDC has gone into partnerships with local entities that include the National Housing Fund for the residential area and the National Social Security Authority in the construction of some factory shells.

Chinese investors that were part of the delegation that recently visited Zimbabwe also expressed an interest in investing in the high-tech park.