Foreign investors in renewed confidence

Published: 24 June 2018
FOREIGN investors have renewed their buoyancy in the country's economic policies which has resulted in them channelling funds to assist in various developmental programmes as they feel their investments will be worthwhile and safe.

This was revealed by President Mnangagwa when addressing thousands of people gathered at White City Stadium for a Zanu-PF star rally. The President said since his inauguration in November last year he had emphasised the need for the country to focus on reviving the country's economy and development, revealing that he was pleased that was yielding results to an extent that countries like China and the United States were coming in to assist in key developmental issues.

"As we intend to industrialise, it is necessary that we ensure that there is energy so in that regard we concluded Kariba South Extension which added 300 megawatts to the national grid. During my visit to China I also secured a loan of $1,2 billion which will be used to rehabilitate unit seven and eight of Hwange Thermal Power Station.

"We are also developing Batoka Gorge, which will give us 2 400 megawatts which we will, however, be sharing with Zambia. Despite the fact that USA has ZEDERA sanctions against us, the signals coming out of Washington currently are positive because at Batoka Gorge we are working with General Electric, one of the biggest companies in the US. Otherwise President Trump can turn up to be a very good guy," said President Mnangagwa.

He said when he took over power he had pushed the mantra of Zimbabwe being open for business, and he said his administration and himself made sure that they inform their Sadc partners and the international community.

"As we spread to the world our new thrust we fortunately had the Davos Conference where all international organisations of importance assemble. All leaders of powerful nations of the First World met at Davos to discuss nothing but wealth, the creation of wealth. So I said the voice of Zimbabwe must be heard in this forum where the biggest voices of wealth gathered and the voice of Zimbabwe dominated.

"Our foreign policy emphasises the need to engage and re-engage, of which we mean that we now want to have new friends on board, with regard to re-engaging we are saying those countries that had disengaged with us in the past, we say to you, come back we re-engage," said the President.

President Mnangagwa said the thrust now was to create a middle income economy by 2030, with a capita of US$3 500, ensuring that the country frees itself from poverty. He said in order to create wealth the strategy was to identify enablers that will see the economy classed in various categories which include; agriculture, mining, infrastructure development, energy, tourism and ICT.

"We have a way of developing each particular sector. With regards to agriculture the first thing that comes to mind is that this country must feed itself. We have enough land and water in this country hence we must be able to modernise our agriculture and make each hectare productive so that we have enough grain to feed ourselves and in the process also have excess for export. In this area the question of hunger is behind us, this nation will never again see hunger.

"We also have a model for the mining sector where we went to the People's Republic of China where we were given a facility of $100 million to deal with the question of empowering our illegal miners, who from now on we should refer to as small-scale miners," he said.

The President said while the country had a lot of minerals the problem was that it did not have the capacity to extract all the minerals therefore there is a need for them to appeal for foreign investment which he noted would only come if the investors felt their investment is safe and protected.
- zimpapers
Tags: Investors,

Comments

Latest News

Latest Published Reports

Latest jobs