President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday evening met a group of Chinese investors with interests across various sectors of the economy. Chief among the discussions were opportunities for investment in Zimbabwe’s special economic zones. Business Times senior Reporter Taurai Mangudhla (TM) interviewed Zimbabwe Special Economic Zones Authority
executive Tongoona Chitando (TC) around running projects and future plans after his presentation at the meeting. Below are excerpts:
TM: During the presentation you indicated you have special economic zones across the country; one of your recent projects was in Norton. Can you speak about that project in detail?
TC: In Norton we have got Lentsloane… what used to be Hunyani. That’s about 389 hectares and the project is multi-sectoral. It’s an industrial park and they will put up a solar project. If you get there physically you will notice that they have a substation within them so they will just feed into a national grid. That’s their plan. It’s quite a big investment and they have initiatives which are industrial-related like manufacturing.
TM: Closer to Norton is Afrochine, what is the plan there?
TC: Afrochine are into chrome smelting, just smelting, and they have plans to get into stainless steel production which is value addition so that we get better value from our chrome anyway. From high carbon ferrochrome, they want to produce stainless steel.
TM: How about in Bulawayo?
TC: In Bulawayo we have just licensed Chingaseswe, a company which will be producing gases such as your oxygen, your acetylene and all the other gases for medical and industrial use. We have BMA Fasteners in Bulawayo; they are into bolt and nut production. We also have Shepco who are also into manufacturing hardware related products.
TM: These are private owned, I believe, what about the public ones?
TC: The public ones are what we are setting up and they are quite a number. There is the Masuwe Stateland that I was talking about where there is Mosi. Mosi is one that has 271ha and the others have 200ha. They are part of the whole Masuwe whose concept is based on setting up a medical tourism hub. We realised we have problems with tourists when they come into Zimbabwe, some of them are not keen to come because they fear if one catches malaria, for example, where do they go? As such, we need a highly mechanised kind of hospital facility, not just a hospital but a medical tourism hub which will have gyms and all the other things so that it becomes sort of a health centre not just for treatment, but also for wellness, the complete wellness.
TM: What other facilities are expected on this Victoria Falls project?’
TC: They also want to put up a financial services hub which will service the whole of Victoria Falls; they want to put up some villas, hotels and a convention centre. If you check now, Victoria Falls does not have a huge convention centre. If you have over 7000 delegates, where do they go? This is why also the municipality itself is mooting the possibility of putting up a convention centre just behind their administration offices. They have got 12ha of land there which they want to develop, put up a hotel and also a convention centre and then also modernise their administration offices. That is Masuwe in Victoria Falls.
TM: How about the public ones in Bulawayo?
TC: You have Imvumela in Bulawayo which is an industrial park close to the airport with over 100ha ready for development. It’s an industrial park so it will have a variety, but key are industries that have something to do with Matabeleland such as products from cattle ranching therefore the value addition has to do with cattle ranching, leather tanning, beef production and beef processing. Rather than sending raw beef to Europe, if we then start export after dealing with all these other issues to do with foot and mouth and all other problems, we encourage they process the beef. That’s what we encourage in special economic zones, there must be value addition, let’s not export raw beef, but let us export processed beef with a higher value. All those industries that have got something to do with Matabeleland and Bulawayo region will then be housed in that industrial park which is the Imvumela.
TM: The Belmont will have these other ones I suppose?
TC: Yes, the Belmont Kelvin corridor is where we have all these others that I was mentioning which are privately owned like Shepco, BMA Fasteners and Chingases and a few others that are applicants at the moment.
TM: Speaking of applicants, how many proposals have you received so far and how many have been approved?
TC: At the moment I wouldn’t give the numbers, but we can always check. The moment we license them, we normally gazette them so they become public, you will soon know.
TM: There has been some talk also about Beitbridge and Mutare?
TC: There is the Beitbridge one. The Beitbridge one is a dry port. We want to put up a port that will service the greater part of southern Africa where we have container warehouses, bonded warehouses then besides that there are also initiatives that are being made for the development of agro-processing factories in Beitbridge mainly to do with citrus fruits which are grown locally. There are other agro-based products and this will be a processing industrial park owned by Zimbabwe Investment Authority and the local authority which is the Beitbridge Town Council.
TM: How much land have you secured so far for this project?
TC: It’s in excess of 100ha now, initially it was 100ha, then the council put in another 100ha adjacent to that and its now an extension so you are looking at over 200ha.
TM: And Mutare?
TC: There is the Fernhill in Mutare where they are putting up a gemology centre where they are going to process diamonds. There will be a training centre; it is being driven by the School of Mines. They will put up a training centre for diamond processing; they will also do marketing for diamonds and put a helipad for the exportation. The moment you buy, you fly away. Around it will be other activities, they will need accommodation for the students, they will need marketing centres, they will need a few other centres to service the residents of that area.
TM: Is there scope for a port in Mutare or even Beira because of the proximity to the seas and border?
TM: Mutare is working is working on its own, not really as a special economic zone but its working to put up a port. I know they have engaged some South Africans for the development of that area for a big port, but I don’t know how far they have gone now. However, I know they have started negotiations; the team was here seven or eight weeks ago. The problem with putting up a port in Beira is probably control, how do you control it? It becomes a business venture so you need to be probably entering into a joint venture with some Mozambicans; this is why they want to put up their own. It’s easier if you put up your own. All you then need is a road, a rail and a pipeline to link you with whatever is happening at the sea.
TM: Let’s talk about progress in Harare
TC: Harare has got Sunway City which is owned by Industrial Development Corporation. This one is now 800ha and they want to put up a high-tech hub where you have your small little things that have high value. The idea is to target institutions like Samsung and Sony
because 800ha is quite a lot.
TM: Lastly, to what extent are macroeconomic challenges a stumbling block to success of the new projects?
TC: They do become because when you look at the whole macroeconomic environment it has to be very attractive. Now we have power shortages, currency issues and all these other issues. Some of them can be drawbacks but now for us we are saying these are also opportunities,for example right now why are we not investing in solar? I was saying to one applicant this is the right time. If you look at the water inflows that get into Kariba which will be enough for electricity generation, if we are going to get the good rains up there which is the catchment area for the Zambezi river, the inflows will start probably giving us enough generation capacity by end of May next year and we are in only in July. What happens until then? It is the time to set up, put up the solar farms and feed into the national grid. All we need are solar farms for now, because even if we want to talk of Batoka, Batoka will take time for us to get the first megawatt out, what happens before that? Solar is the quickest solution.
