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George Maponga Masvingo Bureau
The provincial leadership here is finalising plans to open an ease of doing business office, as the province positions itself to accrue maximum benefits from its vast natural endowments in line with the devolution programme.

Besides setting up a permanent fully-fledged office, plans are also at an advanced stage to constitute an advisory council that will help the Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Cde Ezra Chadzamira to come up with programmes that help the province to tap into projects that grow its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

This thrust is in line with President Mnangagwa’s vision to turn Zimbabwe into an upper middle income economy by 2030.

Minister Chadzamira’s envisaged Advisory Council is tailored along the lines of the Presidential Advisory Council set up by President Mnangagwa to help with advice on strategies of jump-starting the economy and engender socio-economic development in line with Vision 2030.

Minister Chadzamira yesterday said the province was angling to reap maximum benefits from its resources by creating a flexible regime for local and international investment.

“By the end of this month we hope to have put in place an ease of doing business office that will be operating full-time to facilitate investment,” he said. “We want investors wishing to exploit opportunities in the province to get ready assistance from that office so that they can easily set up shop in Masvingo.

“I will also soon set up an advisory council that will craft strategies and come up with ideas on how best Masvingo can accrue maximum benefits from its natural resources under devolution because the challenge given to us by President Mnangagwa is to make sure we grow our respective provincial GDPs and as Masvingo we want to be right there on top with the others.”

Minister Chadzamira said all the hands were on the deck after the province embraced devolution following district conferences held to appraise lower-tier local government structures about the implications of the programme.

“‘We held very successful district devolution conferences in all the seven administrative districts in Masvingo that were capped by a fully subscribed provincial conference on devolution and everyone is raring to go with each and every part cognisant of their roles under the programme,’’ he said.

Minister Chadzamira said Masvingo was optimistic about its economic fortunes under devolution, thanks to its vast natural resource base.

He said Masvingo is strategically located, with the province well-serviced by both road and rail links, which makes it easier to move produce in and out of the province to fuel economic growth.

Besides rich deposits of diamonds, the province also has gold, coal, manganese, asbestos, chromite, lithium and tantalite, among other precious minerals.

In the tourism sphere, Masvingo is home to the iconic and historic Great Zimbabwe Monuments, the Tugwi-Mukosi Dam and Gonarezhou National Park in the wildlife-rich south-east Lowveld of the country, among other tourism spectacles.

In the field of agriculture, Masvingo boasts the highest dam density in Zimbabwe coupled with good soils, making the province a potential national bread basket through irrigation.

Besides Tugwi-Mukosi Dam which can irrigate more than 25 000 hectares, Masvingo also has Manyuchi, Muzhwi, Manjirenji, Bangala, Siya and Mutirikwi dams that remain largely underutilised, but could awaken from slumber to lead an agricultural revolution in the event of investment in irrigation development.