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Sydney Kawadza Bureau Chief
All is set for the “Mashonaland West is Open for Business” investment conference that will be held at CUT Hotel in Chinhoyi today, with more than 500 delegates expected to attend.

The delegates, including local and international investors, senior Government officials, representatives of local authorities and the corporate world, will discuss a variety of business opportunities that are available in the province.

Zambian Minister for the Southern Province Dr Edify Mukambala Hamukale, who will be the guest of honour at the event, arrived in Chinhoyi yesterday.

The business conferences, which are being organised by the Chartered Institute of Project Managers Zimbabwe and will be held countrywide, are designed to relay President Mnangagwa’s current message to investors that Zimbabwe is open for business.

In an interview with The Herald on Wednesday, Dr Hamukale said today’s event presents an opportunity for the two provinces to pursue and enhance business opportunities in their respective areas.

“We as Southern Province of Zambia hope to find room to cooperate with Mashonaland West Province and it is our hope that the twinning proposal that has been talked over the years will begin to bear fruit,” he said.

“We have actually done a draft of that twinning proposal, which your administration and, indeed, your Government can study on how best we can do it.”

Dr Hamukale said there was scope to cooperate in value adding agricultural raw materials produced by both countries.

“For a long time, Africa has been exporting raw material to industrialised countries and when we do so, we are exporting jobs, we are exporting income, which should have been kept in our countries,” he said.

There is also room for the two countries to cooperate in capacity building of people and institutions, he said.

Dr Hamukale called for the regulation of fishing in the Kariba Dam, while enhancing wildlife protection around the man-made lake.

“There is so much to work on,” he said. “In tourism, in the area of technology and skills transfer between the two countries. As the Southern Province of Zambia, we see a lot business opportunities and commercial intercourse that can be enhanced and made to benefit our two peoples.

“I think we haven’t utilised Lake Kariba fully in the area of tourism; maybe we have tried, but in the area of water sport we haven’t done much.”

Dr Hamukale said there was also room for irrigation projects with water harvested from Kariba Dam.

Minister of State for Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs Cde Webster Shamu, who received Dr Hamukale, said the province was being guided by President Mnangagwa’s call that Zimbabwe was open for business.