Midlands drafts economic blueprint

THE Midlands province is working on establishing a Provincial Economic Development Strategy (2020-2025) aimed at fostering creation of new business ventures in mining and agriculture in line with the national vision.

The Provincial Economic Development Strategy will also be used to entice value addition in the agriculture sector, which include processing of beef products among others.

The province is pursuing measures to generate broad support for all programmes to be rolled out towards promoting socio-economic transformation.

In his recent Provincial State of Affairs Report, Midlands Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Larry Mavima, said the province was fully committed to playing its part towards the national vision of an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

“To date the province’s technical team has collected most of the primary data and has introduced a draft that will be used to undertake broad consultations with key stakeholders within the province,” he said.

Programmes to feature in the province’s economic development strategy include the establishment of a provincial investment corporation that will drive creation of new business ventures.

“Some of the devolution funds will be directed towards this establishment,” said Minister Mavima. He said there were also programmes to enhance import substitution through increasing support for local companies like Sable Chemicals in Kwekwe. Gweru General Hospital, he said, will be upgraded to a central hospital while Midlands State University (MSU) will be assisted in establishing a medical teaching unit.

“The minister said a new explosives manufacturing company in Kwekwe would soon be commissioned and would eliminate the importation of explosives for the mining sector. The provincial economic blueprint would also feature the phased resuscitation of Ziscosteel in Redcliff.

“We also want to see an increase in cotton production in the Midlands province from 52 percent to 70 percent thereby transforming Gokwe Town into a textile hub in the country,” said Minister Mavima.

He said plans to establish a gold service centre in each gold producing district were underway, which would add value to the mining sector. Meanwhile, the minister said he was working with his Local Government and Public Works counterpart to resolve land issues that continue to be a challenge around peri-urban settlements.-chronicle