KITS for the assembly of 21 buses arrived in Zimbabwe yesterday from China, as Harare moves to reduce the forex import bill and create more jobs through assembling buses locally.
The project will create up to 80 direct jobs but the number
is expected to grow with time, while the country will now save at least US$30
000, which was being used to import a single bus.
Zimbabwe, which once boasted of assembling buses in the
last three decades, has been battling to do so due to illegal sanctions imposed
by the West.
The latest deal to assemble buses is expected to benefit
Zimbabwe through skills transfer, with engineers from China already in Zimbabwe
to share notes with their local counterparts.
Amalgamated Bus Industries co-owned by four local
directors, Mr Kura Sibanda, Dr Leonard Mukumba, Dr Sam Nhanhanga and Dr
Shadreck Tiripano, is spearheading the bus assembly project through a US$35
million facility.
Dr Mukumba yesterday confirmed that the bus kits were now
in the country.
“We have received containers with 21 kits for buses which
we will be assembling in the country. So far 60 to 80 workers will be directly
employed.
“As for the next batch, we will be importing 100 kits and
employing 400 workers. We will save at least US$30 000 per bus (assembled),” he
said.
Mr Sibanda, who is the brains behind the deal, said the
project was their own way of driving Vision 2030 that President Mnangagwa is
championing.
“We are doing this for our country so that we partake and
participate in the engineering value chain of the economy of this Republic.
“In doing so we are tackling the three challenges of
unemployment, inequality and underdevelopment,” he said.
Project manager Mr Patrick Munyaradzi said from the
original equipment manufacturer to Amalgamated Bus Industries, the deal was in
line with the National Development Strategy 1.
Mr Munyaradzi said the buses will meet local standards,
adding that Zimbabwe would generate reasonable sums of money from exporting the
buses into the region. Herald
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