President urges worker training to compliment infr...

President urges worker training to compliment infrastructure class

Oscar J Jeke

Zim Now Reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has urged hotel business owners to provide training for their workforce to complement their infrastructure class, saying that infrastructure without skilled workers leads to poor services.

The President made the remarks while officiating at the Meikles Hotel name change to Hyatt Regency Hotel, in Harare yesterday, where he noted that hotel owners assured him that the workforce had requisite training to meet quality standards.

In his address, President Mnangagwa commended development and innovation in the business sector, however encouraging owners and authorities to provide their workforce with relevant and world standard training to support the modern infrastructure being developed.

“It is critically important that we continue being innovative. Develop new products and have highly trained and efficient workforce, packed against the global best practices, supported by requisite modern physical infrastructure,” the President said.

He also highlighted that his government’s foreign engagements are yielding results, encouraging tourism investments among other opportunities that have been realised.

“The new opportunities that have been unveiled as a result of my Government’s foreign policy thrust of Engagement and Re-engagement, under the mantra ‘Zimbabwe is a friend to all and an enemy to none,’ should be harnessed to further scale up tourism investments and arrivals. Cultural exchanges and people-to-people relations should be promoted, while our collective capacity to hold regional and international Conferences and Meetings should be strengthened,” he said.

He also encouraged the mayor of Harare, Jacob Mafume to work together with other hotel owners in beautifying the city and adopting spaces similar to Hyatt Regency Hotel group’s business model.

“I exhort you the Mayor of Harare. My dear brother, Mafume. Scale up the beautification of our capital city and encourage other hotel groups and businesses to adopt spaces…” President Mnangagwa added.

Meikles Hotel was opened in 1915 by founder Thomas Meikles and his brothers changed its name after its acquisition for a reported US$20 million fee in 2019 by Arabian investor, Albwardy’s Hyatt Regency Hotel, ending the over 100 years of ownerships of one of Zimbabwe’s oldest hotels.