Story by Memory Chamisa
INCLUSION of students and youths at tertiary institutions in various developmental projects has been identified as key in propelling the country towards attaining an upper middle income society by 2030.
Through the Vision 2030 Movement, this Saturday witnessed students from various tertiary institutions meeting at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare to discuss opportunities they can tap into as the country moves towards the attainment of the goal.
“As youths, we must start acting and stop depending on imports as it is us young innovators who are capable of impacting a difference in the country,” said a student.
“Youths ought to take up space and make sure that they are noticed by the government and investors and the onus is also on the authorities to be investing in young innovators and motivate them to invent more machinery that can address the country’s problems,” added another.
Yet another student noted, “Indeed, the world is always changing in ways that are difficult to both predict and fathom. It is ever-changing, which means that as youths we have to change alongside it. This shows that the country should invest more in funding young innovators and improve on their skills and the creation of good services in the country.”
Giving a lecture dubbed Youth in Conversation for Vision 2030, Zanu PF Secretary for Information, Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa, who was also the guest speaker, challenged students to be part of the country’s industrial revolution.
“It is an important outreach programme both for the government and the party which is there to underpin the initiatives and efforts of the President. He is doing a lot of things and sometimes people do not have a full scope of what is on the ground. It was imperative for me to come here and engage with this generation to be aware of the mammoth changes, game changing paradigm shift in the economy of Zimbabwe as it dovetails with the global markets. That’s what President Emmerson Mnangagwa is doing. He is opening our agricultural, tourism, mining sectors to the best possible international investors. It is you youngsters who must take the lead in this vision. You are innovative, techno savvy, vibrant unlike us. There are so many opportunities for you to tap into and make money. We need young people to be appraised of those developments.
“Here at the universities the creme dele crème in terms of academics needs to understand what the government is doing so that they position themselves accordingly in terms of education 5.0 model,” he said.
The Second Republic has made significant strides in infrastructure rehabilitation and investing in research and innovation at various innovation hubs set up at the country’s universities countrywide.
