Boosting investor confidence through international engagement

THE headline “South African tycoon to invest $1,2 billion in Zimbabwe”, from one of the local newspapers last week, marked the sweetest music of the day in my ears. The South African business tycoon, Mr Robert Matana Gumede arrived in the country last week apparently to cement a $1,2 billion investment deal in key sectors of the economy which include infrastructure development, energy, health, tourism and financial services. What is exciting the most about this development is that it was a direct response to the initiative by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, to visit the regional Southern African Development Community countries and assuring his audiences that Zimbabwe is now open for business. Particularly, this visit by the South African business tycoon followed a meeting, the potential investor held with the President on 21 December last year in Pretoria, South Africa.

This is what the potential investor had to say immediately after landing. “I am happy to be here in Zimbabwe just to see what one can do in assisting the Government in achieving its short-term goals of turning around the economy. As an entrepreneur and businessman who is involved in various businesses, I felt it was an opportune time to come into your country and identify some of the opportunities that my company will be able to invest in,” he said.

Such developments give this nation a great hope of a bright future for our country, as we wait in anticipation for more investment initiatives to come from Angola, Namibia, among the Sadc countries that his Excellency has visited so far and many more countries that he intends to visit. The President’s message has been consistent and very clear — ‘‘Let me assure you that Zimbabwe is not the same again and will not be the same again,” he said. Furthermore, editor of the Sunday News, allow me to quote his Excellency here, “I think we have more than 27 opposition parties in the country but with my focused administration, I hardly see whether they will find ground left behind which I am not taking care of. I said so back home and the response is that, Mnangagwa has taken over our various manifestos. No! My administration addresses the national interests of our country and where the ideas of any opposition party coincides with national interests, that I take on board and it becomes mine and not theirs.” The President said these words when addressing fellow Zimbabweans based in Namibia on Monday, 15 January 2018.

May I remind my fellow sober-minded Zimbabweans that such things can only happen in our beautiful world view. In a beautiful world view where people’s Presidents do not only listen to their subjects’ views and ideas, be they from the opposition or from anybody, but practically take them on board as long as they ascribe and subscribe to national interests, as Government is addressing all challenges facing the nation with renewed effort and vigour.

Turning our Diplomatic Missions into offices of international engagement:

While it is true that “charity begins at home”, it is also true that Zimbabwe, like any other country belongs to the global community. Notwithstanding the importance of regional (Sadc, AU) acceptance as a political legitimacy, the new administration of the country could consider extending President Mnangagwa’s current regional tours to appraise his fellow Sadc leaders of developments in Zimbabwe that culminated in his ascension to the Presidency by expanding the exercise of international investor confidence boosting efforts through turning the country’s Diplomatic Missions into offices of international engagement. I was excited to read from one of the President’s Facebook posts of his tour of Namibia on Monday, 15 January 2018, titled, “Zimbabwe is back on the map — a proud member of the community of nations!”

It is my personal conviction that the new Government considers investing in the extension of Zimbabwe’s Diplomatic Missions mandate across the globe into offices of international engagement with the focus on boosting investor confidence as a structural strategy. This is not meant to undermine the President’s current and future initiatives of touring the region and the international community in the near future, but to transform the Diplomatic Missions in line with the new political dispensation’s thrust to drive the investor confidence trajectory of the new Zimbabwe.

The concept of offices of international engagement transcends beyond the traditional roles of the country’s Diplomatic Missions. These are the same Diplomatic Missions that had served the interests of the country as it was administered by the previous political dispensation that presided over the waning of the investment confidence of the country. Now that Zimbabwe is no longer the same and will never be the same again let’s rebrand our Diplomatic Missions and turn them into offices of international engagements for investor confidence boosting and rejuvenation in the process of national rebranding that Zimbabwe requires now.

These offices of international engagement could assist the President and his Government with the execution of the international engagement strategy and agenda of nation rebranding for investor confidence rejuvenation. The offices of international engagement would assist to project the new Government’s vision for a globally recognised and prestigious international investment destination country of choice as the country seeks to re-join the league of nations, such as the Commonwealth and the rest for example. The offices of international engagement would assist the new Government with prioritisation of the international markets that are important for advancing the country’s economic recovery and growth, help in linking the priority markets to key industry areas central to the economic diversification disposition of the country as potential investment opportunity for foreign investment.

The offices of international engagement would also operate as templates for a co-ordinated approach to international engagement across global governments and ensure the potential investors that their investments will be safe in Zimbabwe under the new political dispensation in line with his Excellency’s pronouncement during his inauguration.

In conclusion, it is indeed encouraging to note that the new leadership of the new Zimbabwe has demonstrated commitment to making Zimbabwe not the same again. This development calls upon serious commitment to national branding which seemed to have been of interest towards the end of 2016. I remember being invited to make a presentation on “governance” one of the key pillars of nation branding in a workshop that was jointly organised by the Ministries of Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Tourism and the Office of the then President in Bulawayo. This instalment suggests turning the country’s Diplomatic Missions into offices of international engagement for the purposes of driving the investor confidence and national branding that Zimbabwe needs right now.

Dr Bongani Ngwenya is based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow and can be contacted on email: nbongani@ gmail.com