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Business Reporter
TechnoMag, a local online tech magazine will hold this year’s edition of Tech@School during the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development’s Research and Intellectual Outputs-Science, Engineering and Technology Expo at the National University of Science Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo.

RIO-SET is a Government of Zimbabwe initiative, through the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technology Development and the week-long event will see all the decision makers in the education sector and students converging in Bulawayo from August 31 to September 3.

The 2016 edition of the Rio-Set Expo is running under the theme: “Growing the Zimbabwean economy through innovations”.

Founder of TechnoMag, Mr Toneo Tonderai Rutsito, said the event was a milestone to drive innovation and expose the young innovations at various institutions while bridging the technological divide between industry and learning institutions in Zimbabwe.

“We have a lot of talent that has been exhibited by our young innovators which unfortunately has not been getting enough support. We seek in our small way to help expose these young tech innovators to industry and hopefully create an environment that promotes symbiotic business interests for all players.”

The Rio-Set Expo is a one-week programme event that brings all the higher and tertiary institutions and teachers’ colleges including universities, polytechnics and colleges to convene, deliberate and map forward annually while they exhibit their research and outstanding products.

The thrust is to provide a platform from which Zimbabweans would learn about new research outputs being produced in higher and tertiary education institutions.

The inaugural African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology (AMCOST) held in Senegal in 2005 concluded that for Africa to realise meaningful socioeconomic development in a rapidly globalising world in which the rate of entry of new technologies onto the market demands greater focus on the extension of value chain of available natural resources through effective exploitation of science and technology.

This in effect would contribute to narrowing the North/South development divide by harnessing science and technology to transform national economies and achieve the post 2015 agenda.