Zimbabwean contractors charm Malaysian investors

VIMBAI TANDI

A delegation from local contractors under the Zimbabwe Building Contractors Association (ZBCA) banner has charmed investors from Malaysia who are willing to visit and explore business opportunities in the country’s construction industry with a view to work together and push ahead with the country’s vision.

The ZBCA, local authorities, Urban Development Cooperation among others are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the International Construction Transformation Conference (ICTC), a gathering aimed at exposing them to Sustainable Financing Initiatives, Affordable Housing Finance, Green Building Projects and modern Construction Methods.

ZBCA president Petros Kagwere said the team has so far met influential players in the industry at global level and said possible collaborations were on the cards.

The team is attending the International Construction Transformation Conference (ICTC) 2023 being hosted in Malaysia where contractors are congregating.

“We are excited that we have met a lot of contractors who are doing a lot of work in Malaysia and in our trust and our engagement, we are emphasizing on collaboration with them,” Kagwere said.

“We have met many including  those involved in a lot of housing construction work. We have already agreed on MoUs with them and we will be visiting some of the sites.

“The major drive that we took home is that these people are so excited to visit Zimbabwe and we have also learnt a lot about their technology, how they are making things happen in terms of their infrastructure development,” he added.

He said the locals are willing to adopt key technologies that ensure delivery of housing at the shortest period of time.

“These are a lot of achievements that we are making as ZBCA where we are saying they can come to Zimbabwe not only just to meet us as private sector or contractors but also to enhance and see a lot of opportunities the second Republic has availed to make sure we improve the livelihood of people with thrust that we need to achieve middle to upper class housing by 2030 riding on the agenda of NDS1 and NDS2.”

Zimbuild Chief Executive Officer and ZBCA senior vice president Dr Tinashe Manzungu said the indaba has opened doors for partnership with the thriving Malaysian industry.

“It is the Malaysia International Building and Construction Industry Showcase where we have met with investors, we have met with funders, we have also met with other long term contractors that have built their names over years,” Manzungu said.

“To Zimbabwe it’s a learning curve because since 2021, the government has put power on the indigenous people to come into the construction line and to develop the country.

So we are here in Malaysia to then learn, adapt and change or modernise our construction systems as a country so you will see that recently we have been having our construction conference where we are looking at movement to construction 5.0 and indeed here in Malaysia we have seen that happening.”

Manzungu added: “All over the country we are seeing a lot of movements in terms of construction technologies. Not only construction technologies but also the simple case of infrastructure funding, where you’ll see that the export/import bank of Malaysia is also taking part in developing the world. So Africa is one of the key strategic points as well as we look forward to further engagements as we have already started to do so,” he said.

He said the construction industry in Zimbabwe is growing fast and the kind of linkages they have been exposed to in Malaysia are critical.

“So we see that there has been expression of interest from contractors in Malaysia to come and put in the technological aspect of their building systems in Africa or in Zimbabwe but also the funding or the funding gaps that we need to leverage on and make sure that we deliver.”