In an interview with The Zimbabwean, Farai Matondo, the executive director of MBC, said the conference would bring together representatives from the public and private sectors to explore a legal framework for partnership in developing the countrys infrastructure. The conference will discuss case studies from South Africa, Botswana and China to learn from their experiences, he said. Matondo said as business people in Zimbabwe they wanted to learn from countries where the concepts of Build, Operate, Own, and Transfer had been successfully implemented.
He said the Zimbabwean business people appreciated that it had a lot to learn from South Africa, Botswana and other countries in the region where the private sector had participated in developing infrastructure such as roads, water reticulation and power generation systems. We want to leverage global best practices with South Africa and other countries where the principle of public private partnerships have been implemented, he added. Matondo said the conference, which will be open to all interested business people and companies in Zimbabwe, will also discuss specific projects that the public and private sectors could work together on, such as the Chiadzwa diamond and Methane gas fields in Manicaland.
We have a lot of tourism, timber and horticultural opportunities among others in Manicaland. Business people from other provinces can also market their business opportunities in their respective areas, said Matondo. He said experts from countries where the association between the public and private sectors had been successful would make presentations at the conference. Matondo said there was need for the inclusive government to positively re-brand the country to remove the negative perception in which it was being viewed in the international community. The inclusive government should try to follow South Africas International Marketing Council, which it established to sell the image of the country abroad, he said.
Matondo appreciated that the South African government was committed to strengthening the strong bilateral relations that existed between the two countries.
Post published in: Economy