Harare – Local construction industries are bracing for major deals with the government as infrastructure development has become central to government’s efforts to transform the country into an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

Having been sidelined in favour of foreign contractors due to reasons such as low capacity, and facing stiff competition from foreign companies particularly from China, local industry players last year called on government to engage them in major construction projects saying it will help limit repatriation of foreign currency by foreign companies.

“Contractors who come here work and repatriate money back to their countries. We want to partner Government so that we become a player in bringing foreign currency to the country,” Zimbabwe Building Contractors Association, president Engineer Ramson Nherera is on record saying.

Meanwhile, the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) and the Construction Industry Federation of Zimbabwe (CIFoz) have organised a conference running between Tuesday and Wednesday this week to interact and share views of major projects that are lined up this year.

Government has lined up infrastructure development plan this year chief among them being the dualisation of the Beitbridge – Chirundu Highway which local industry player expect to play a significant role in completing the project.

“As local players, we have retooled and we now have the capacity to take head on these mega projects,” a contractor, Devillious Sibanda was yesterday quoted as saying at the conference.

The two – day conference is running under the theme: “Towards Vision 2030 National Transport, Housing and Infrastructure projects – harnessing public and private sector synergies,” which blends well with government’s vision.

In the 2019 National Budget, government allocated $1,5 billion for the construction of the Harare – Beitbridge Highway, having realised that foreign contractors are quite expensive. The improvement of this highway will go a long way in boosting the country’s economic activities as South Africa is the Zimbabwe’s biggest trade partner.

However, the persisting financial challenges affecting the country will prove to be the major thorn in completion of any projects. As a result of the capital challenges, there has been a low uptake of projects and many infrastructure facilities across the country have been left uncompleted.

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