Create business hub to generate wealth:

THE Mutare business community has been urged to work on creating a business hub that will generate more employment opportunities for youths in Manicaland province.

Mutare- based entrepreneurship and learning hub, Shinga, says it is important for the business community to bridge the experience gap that exists between the current crop of business people and the budding young entrepreneurs.

To this end, the organisation has lined up a business conference in Mutare to pull focus on the opportunities that lie within the city, which businesses can leverage on to grow the economy.

The conference, to be held on December 2, will run under the theme “Creating the Mutare dream”.

Shinga do- director Mr Desire Jongwe said the conference would seek to provide the missing link to business opportunities for youths in the city.

“For long, focus has been on Harare and little notice has been given to the opportunities that lie in Mutare, which are not being exploited.

“We have young people fresh from tertiary institutions here who have skills. But there is a gap between the skills and experience. In our quest as Shinga, we want to make Mutare the next economic hub and we are looking at how we can use technology to create more jobs for the youths,” he said.

Mr Jongwe said the conference would link up experienced executives who were willing to share with the younger generation ideas on how to venture into business and help grow the local economy.

He said it was important for Mutare to be prepared for the time when the Mutare is granted a Special Economic Zone status.

“We should not limit ourselves to value addition in the special economic zone, we have other areas we could be looking at.

We have tourism and we should maximize on this beautiful scenery we have in eastern highlands to grow the tourism industry,” said Mr Jongwe.

Government is working on legis- lation for the setting up of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to attract Foreign Direct Investment. While Manicaland has been cited as a possible location of the SEZ, the region’s manufacturing base has shrunk in recent times and is in need of boost which industrialists say the SEZ status would give it.

Speakers at the business conference will include Mr Arcadia Kecho, the interim regional manager for the National Social security Authority (NSSA), Mr Richard Chiwandire the vice president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, National Arts Gallery director Mrs Tafadzwa Muusha, Ms Ropafadzo Dunira the area manager eastern region for Zimbabwe Tourism Authority among others.