The Sunday News
Lungile Tshuma, Business Correspondent
ZIMBABWE will take advantage of the Western countries’ soft stance on investing in the country by lining up a number of conferences and tours to tell the true Zimbabwean story amid indications that the countries are eager to explore local business opportunities.
In an interview Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Dr Obert Mpofu said from the engagement with some countries including the Western ones, investors had shown keen interest in investing in the country.
Delegations from France and Britain recently visited the country to explore investment opportunities and have shown interest in investing in the country.
Dr Mpofu said Government has also engaged Canada and Australia on investment opportunities in the country and their responses have been positive.
He said the ministry is organising a number of conferences and tours to spruce the image of the country which is being tainted by the local private and international media.
“We have lined up a lot of international conferences to tell the Zimbabwean story on the economy so that there won’t be any negative perceptions. The move is mainly designed to appeal to those who are against our policies,” Dr Mpofu said.
“We have already embarked on a deliberative engagement process with other countries to tell investors what the country can offer to them from a practical point of view as opposed to wrong perceptions that are mostly driven by hostile international media and the private Press in the country which seeks to demine economic policies.
“There are some positive developments as the ministry has made positive strides towards encouraging investors to listen to us. We have Australians, Canadians, Chinese, Nigerians, Zambians and also South Africans promising to come and invest in the country. In the next few days we will be having a big delegation from China that will attract more about 2 000 companies to deliberate on issues of investment.”
The ministry in partnership with African Development Bank organised a conference that took place on Wednesday and Thursday last week. The conference was a high level symposium on inclusive growth, investment promotion and poverty reduction.
Dr Mpofu said the conference came up with very important issues which the ministry is addressing.
He said investors raised concerns which were crucial in creating a suitable environment for people to invest in the country and the Government will leave no stone unturned in solving issues raised.
Dr Mpofu added that his ministry was working hard to ensure that foreign direct investment improves.
He said the mandate which he has is to ensure that investors don’t face challenges or bureaucratic conditions when they want to invest.
Said Dr Mpofu: “As the ministry we have the duty to enhance the attraction of more foreign direct investment in a manner that makes it easy and attractive for investors to invest in the country. We are working hard to ensure that it becomes easy for investors to process their paper work easily not under bureaucratic challenges that some investors are experiencing or used to experience. Zimbabwe is ranked poorly in the investment index and this is one of the issues that the ministry will look into and solve through workshops, conferences and also visiting performing countries to learn from them.”
Although Zimbabwe’s foreign direct investment (FDI) flows have been on a steady upward trend, the country still lags behind its counterparts in the region.
In 2013, Zimbabwe’s FDI amounted to $400 million, which increased to $545 million last year, latest figures from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) show.
In comparison, last year neighbours South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia recorded FDI inflows of $5,7 billion, $4,9 billion and $2,4 billion respectively.
