Mbambo happy with Mashonaland Investment Conference

RUNDU, 30 APR  – The governor of the Kavango East Region, Dr. Samuel Mbambo, on Monday expressed satisfaction with the Mashonaland West Province’s Investment conference held in Zimbabwe on 21 April.
Mbambo headed a seven-member team comprising of delegates from his office; the Ministry of Education, Arts, and Culture; the Kavango East Regional Council, as well as the business community to Mashonaland, Zimbabwe for the one-day investment conference.
Mbambo told Nampa in an interview that prospective foreign and local investors converged in Mashonaland, Zimbabwe under the theme ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’.
“Our trip to Zimbabwe was actually an invitation from our counterparts. What is happening in Zimbabwe now is that they are having a drive to popularise business in that country with the theme ‘Invest in Zimbabwe’,” he said.
This concept, he said, has been decentralised to each province in the country, where each province gets a turn to host a conference of this nature.
Mbambo said when it was Mashonaland’s turn to host the conference, they invited his region to participate in light of the twinning agreement that the two regions will soon sign.
“We were not the only ones invited but there were also others coming as far as Italy, India, China and Pakistan as well as diplomats from several regional countries, local investors and captains of industry,” he added.
The delegation from Namibia also visited a research centre known as Seed Co, which is mandated to breed, produce, process and market hybrid crop seeds.
Mbambo added that plans are afoot for Seed Co to come to Namibia and open a centre to distribute these seeds.
“They will not just come and sell farmers the seeds, but they will visit your piece of land, look at your soil and advise you on the type of seed you can plant,” Mbambo said.
Seed Co, he explained, will give interested farmers 5 kilogrammes of seeds. The company will guide farmers on how to plant it and to look after it until its maturity.
“So they are a company that does not just sell. They are afraid that people might not do justice to their crop and at the end of the day say ‘Seed Co said they are the best, now look at what happened’,” he stressed.
It is important to the company that farmers follow instructions, said the governor.
Mbambo said the company has asked his office to identify farmers in all six constituencies of the Kavango East Region that are interested, and his office is now in the process of doing so.
What was also interesting to see, he added, was exhibitions from students and young people showcasing their different innovations in information technologies as well electrical innovations.
This, he said, showed how young people were ready to invest in the future of Mashonaland and develop it further.

NAMPA