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Zimbabwe makes excellent 2010 World Cup progress

The 2010 Soccer World Cup Local Organi-sing Committee (LOC) expressed its pleasure yesterday at Zimbab-we's progress in preparing for the tournament.

The 2010 Soccer World Cup Local Organi-sing Committee (LOC) expressed its pleasure yesterday at Zimbab-we's progress in preparing for the tournament.

"As we've always said, this World Cup is for Africa, not just for South Africa," said spokesman Tim Modise.

"We know the whole region will benefit, not just Zimbabwe, but other countries as well," he said in reaction to a report on Zimbabwe's Herald Online.

According to the report, Zimbabwe's ministries had presented projects to the country's sport, tou-rism, image and communication task force on Wednesday in anti-cipation of the expec-ted "economic windfall" from the World Cup.

These included the construction of stadia at Beitbridge and the resort town of Victoria Falls to provide practice venues for visiting teams. Upgrades to roads, sewerage systems and the construction and rehabilitation of stadia are also in the pipeline.

Zimbabwean education minister Aeneas Chigwedere said incentives should be put in place for the corporate world to take part in the preparations.

"We are expecting more than 300000 visitors during the tournament," said Modise.

"Somewill visit neighbouring countries and some might stay there, and we encourage that," he said.

He was not aware of any formal communication between the LOC and Zimbabwean aut-horities in preparation for the World Cup but added that there was a possibility that some teams might choose to be based outside of South Africa. - Sapa

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