ZIA upbeat about re-engagement drive

Published: 01 April 2018
Effective international communication will spur investment into the country and help drive economic turnaround, Zimbabwe Investment Authority CEO Mr Richard Mubaiwa has said.

On CapitalkFM last week, Mr Mubaiwa commended Government's re-engagement initiatives and called for greater participation in this by Zimbabweans.

"If you look at the most successful countries, whether it is Singapore, Rwanda in Africa and Mauritius, they are always attending these forums. So there is a need for us to attend these international forums because you cannot afford to sit down and say people have heard our message, you have to go out there to engage them. You have to go out there and invite them to come. I don't think it is a wise thing for us to sit back and say we have been heard. Every forum we must engage," said Mr Mubaiwa in response to criticism that Government was spending too much time attending conferences.

Mr Mubaiwa said there was need for a two-pronged approach, with policy changes taking place on the ground while re-engagement continued.

He said the picture many foreigners had of Zimbabwe stemmed from the period of economic decline and re-engagement would help change that narrative.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been, since his inauguration in November 2017, spreading the "Zimbabwe is open for business," gospel, meeting global economic players like the World Bank, IMF and African Development Bank, to name a few.

The country is already witnessing the fruits of this strategic drive with several huge investment deals having been signed across various sectors.

Mr Mubaiwa said many investors were keen to work with Zimbabwe.

"I think that these missions have been fruitful in changing the perception of the country with Zimbabwe known as the place where it's not easy to do business and investors losing their money," said Mr Mubaiwa.

Commenting on the Africa CEO Forum 2018, where President Mnangagwa met key private sector players, Mr Mubaiwa said: "The big take away there is that these CEOs are actually looking for opportunities and they managed to get clarification on issues to do with investing in Zimbabwe.

"We also even had members of the private companies who are operating in Zimbabwe expressing and telling potential investors how they find it in terms of operating in Zimbabwe."

He noted that some of the issues discussed had to do with reforms and the processes of establishing companies in Zimbabwe, as well as repatriation of money.

Mr Mubaiwa said the major highlight for the panel discussion was the announcement by Afreximbank that they were guaranteeing and providing over $1,5 billion to support foreign investors who might need to take out dividends and make foreign payments. He said as much as the foreign currency problems could not be permanently solved by such facilities, they still provided necessary relief.

"The policy is very clear, investors are allowed to repatriate 100 percent of their dividends even capital gains. We are facing challenges in terms of the actual availability of foreign currency in terms of funding our nostro balances. So this is not something we can run away from, we need to increase the level of FDI and exports and this is the only solution to solve our crisis," said Mr Mubaiwa.
- zimpapers
Tags: ZIA,

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