ED to spearhead regional integration

TANAKA FETINANDI

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s appointment as the chairman of the SADC region will help regional integration and  dovetail with African Union (AU) agenda 2063,  the chairman of the roads authority board, ZINARA, Dr George Manyaya, who is also Zimbabwe’s  candidate for the AU  Commissioner for infrastructure and energy, has said.

Dr Manyaya said the President’s transformative leadership and developmental thrust in the energy sector and Infrastructural development area in the country dovetails into the SADC agenda and also that of the continent adding a lot will be achieved in his tenure as SADC chairman.

Dr Manyaya says the President has shepherded various projects and restructured the roads authority, ZINARA, into a developmental tool in the infrastructure cluster while his push on the energy sector has yielded significant results.

This, Dr Manyaya says, dovetails with the AU agenda that has targets to integrate reliable transport networks to boost intra-Africa trade and also access to energy. He was speaking on the sidelines of the official opening of the Hwedza- Mushandirapamwe road in Mashonaland East province.

“The assumption of Dr E.D Mnangagwa as SADC chair will help regional integration and cumulately be inline with the seven aspirations and 20 goals of  AU 2063 agenda,” Dr Manyaya said.

“His transformative leadership led to the infrastructural revolution roads which ZINARA is funding. He has been spearheading sustainable energy solutions like Hwange 7 and 8. Imagine with the challenges we have in hydrology what would we be doing?”

“He has been spearheading projects for renewable and non-renewable projects. This dovetails with the AU agenda where there are targets to integrate reliable transport networks to boost intra-Africa trade, access to energy we have massive hydro potential on the Zambezi and Kafue basins that need conjunctive operations,” he added.

The second Republic has been active on the developmental agenda in critical sector that include infrastructure development and energy, all critical for development in line with Vision 2030.
Several roads have been rehabilitated across the country including the crucial Harare-Chirundu Highway, Harare-Beitbridge road among many others.
ZINARA has also disbursed millions of dollars for rehabilitation of local roads.