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Michael Magoronga Midlands Correspondent

Preparations for the 10th anniversary of the Kwekwe Expo, an annual exhibition, are on course with organisers expressing hope that the event will be a success.

Kwekwe Expo chairman Mr Eric Msesengwe said this year’s event will be special as they will be celebrating a 10 year milestone achievement.

He said they were expecting about 100 companies to exhibit at the event to be held at the Kwekwe mining museum from September 23 to 25.

“This is a special edition as we will be celebrating 10 years of marketing what Kwekwe has to offer. We have a lot lined up. We are hoping that companies will come forward to help us celebrate this milestone achievement,” said Mr Msesengwe.

Mr Msesengwe said they were also targeting Small to Medium Enterprises, whose business seem to be thriving under such conditions.

“We have targeted mainly SMEs as they are the ones that are currently driving the economy.

That is not to say we have dumped our regular exhibitors, no, we will keep working with our regular clients but as a way of boosting exhibitors, we have approached the SME sector who have also expressed willingness to work with us,” he said.

Mr Msesengwe said this year’s event will also seek to empower youths as the junior legislators and councillors will have a big role to play.

“We are saying the youths are the future and we have to catch them young as such we will give them a significant role to play at the event.

We are still crafting but definitely you will see more of them at this year’s event.

“This is our new thrust that seeks to empower the youths so that they also have a role to play in the economic turnaround strategy,” he said.

He expressed optimism that they will improve from last year’s 40 exhibitors to 100.

He also said Zimasco chief executive Mr John Msekiwa will be guest of honour at the event.

“Mr Msekiwa will officially open the event. At the event we will have our traditional events like the school quiz for both primary and secondary schools.

We will also have the Mr and Miss Kwekwe Expo pageant as well as a number of musicians who will perform at the show just like before,” he said.

The Kwekwe Expo is a brainchild of Kwekwe Publicity Association and it started in 2009 with less than 10 companies.