BCC to capitalise on infrastructure summit
Bulawayo City Council has been presented with an opportunity to attract global investors in infrastructure development and understand new infrastructural policies and legal framework as the local authority has embraced the smart city concept.
The local authority has been invited to the Global Renaissance Investments (GRI) eighth edition of the Zimbabwe Infrastructure Investment Summit set for Victoria Falls.
The summit will run from the 23rd to the 25th of November under the theme: “Towards Smart Cities and Smart Infrastructure to Achieve 2030 vision.”
The smart city concept emphasises on the adoption of technologies such as smart grids, agritech, e-commerce, digital finance, e-grocery platforms, smart transport system, smart tourism, smart education, smart health, smart housing and e-governance.
The Zimbabwe Infrastructure Investment Summit seeks to highlight the vast investment opportunities in infrastructure that are currently available in the country.
The event comes as the Government, through the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), has identified infrastructure as a key enabler to economic development.
Water, energy, information and communication technology (ICT), and transport infrastructure are crucial in facilitating industrial activity as well as facilitating trade, both locally and across borders.
The need to improve the quality of infrastructure services in Zimbabwe is, therefore, the cornerstone of the Government’s policy, strategy and programmes to promote sustained and shared economic growth in the country, as articulated in the NDS1.
On the other hand, the city’s short-term vision to become a smart economic destination is anchored on recognition of the need to transform the local authority into a smart city, utilising ICTs and improving operational efficiency of the organisation.
Guided by this vision Bulawayo says it has embraced the smart city concept with focus on providing quality services to clients and different stakeholders by 2024, as critical building blocks towards attainment of an empowered and prosperous upper middle- income economy by 2030.
In a letter to the local authority, GRI chief executive officer, Mr Ngoni Dzirutwe, said the summit is an opportunity for the city to attract investment.
“It’s an opportunity for your City to attract investors from other countries such as South Africa, China, India, Dubai, UK, Spain who will be in attendance,” he said.
Key areas of deliberations will include infrastructural policy and legal frame work in New Smart Cities, measures to boost National Infrastructure, infrastructure opportunities in
New Smart Cities, alternative energy infrastructure and net metering.
Mr Dzirutwe noted that by attending the summit, the local authority will understand new infrastructural policies and legal framework for the New Cities, exposed to new ways of investing in modern infrastructure such as Water infrastructure, waste management infrastructure, roads, housing and energy infrastructure.
Expected speakers include ministers of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Local Government and Social Amenities, Energy and Power Development, National Housing and Development and several parastatal heads.
BCC Director of Town Planning Mr Wisdom Siziba and Assistant Director of Engineering Services (Roads), Mr Methusi Dibidi are expected to represent the council.-chronicle
