Zim takes FDI case to Dubai
THE Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency ( ZIDA) has compiled a list of priority investment areas from across line ministries for presentation to investors during the six-month long Expo Dubai 2020, which kicks off on October 1, 2021.
Earlier, Expo 2020 Dubai commissioner general Ambassador Mary Mubi said Zimbabwe would use the global spotlight provided by expo to showcase the diverse and attractive investment and trade opportunities in the country.
President Mnangagwa's administration, upon assuming the reins in 2017, declared open for business with trade, investment and private sector led growth key elements of the development matrix.
Ambassador Mubi said the global expo Zimbabwe would highlight a range of potentially lucrative investment opportunities in mining, agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, arts and culture, human capital and innovations among others.
As such, the state investment promotion agency said after years of depressed economic activity, Zimbabwe was ready to take off as demonstrated by widespread reforms to doing business procedures and legislative amendments, including on equity laws, to soothe investors' concerns.
Zimbabwe will join nearly 200 countries from across the globe for the trade and investment exhibition in the Emirate for the rescheduled event, initially slated for 2020 but pushed back after the Covid-19 outbreak, which expects to receive 25 million visitors.
ZIDA investments and corporate affairs officer Tino Kambasha said in an interview that a single document had been prepared b y the authority detailing the prime areas of potential foreign investment and all other new incentives.
Kambasha said apart from the wide range of potential investment areas, which can take different forms such as partnerships or 100 percent ownership, Zimbabwe was now more ready for foreign direct investment after putting in place supportive legislation and incentives.
Among the incentives, Kambasha said, were tax holidays for investors, a plethora of incentives prescribed by the ZIDA Act, which gives the authority power to approve investments under one roof, and provisions for investors to own 100 percent shares in their operations.
“We are actually looking as well at what they (foreign investors) want, it is not just about us or one way thing, it is a two way thing, it is also about understanding what they want; agriculture, mining and infrastructure projects,” Kambasha said.
He said Zimbabwe will be looking to spread its nets over the widest pool of potential trade, business and investment partners during the six months from October next month to March next year, as it seeks to drive the already hurtling economic recovery.
“This is not solely focussed on Dubai investors, but obviously they are the host nation and we will target a number of projects towards them but we are completely open,” Kambasha.
He said ZIDA will also take the message that “this was the best time to invest in Zimbabwe” because investors could now own 100 percent of their investment, unlike previously when such a scenario was prohibited under the country's indigenous laws, which were repealed.
Zimbabwe's economy is expected to register strong growth this year, estimated at 7,8 percent despite the long shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, spurred by a good rainy season and relatively more stable macroeconomic conditions.
Further, Kambasha also further highlighted that Zimbabwe now provided a conducive investment climate for foreign investors.
Kambasha said investors now had the freedom, supported by laws of Parliament, to repatriate profits and dividends as they wished while land and assets were now protected at law and not subject to appropriation, a commitment to property rights.
“Investors are free to repatriate their dividends and royalties under the ZIDA Act; all of these things have really changed; the fact they have passed through Parliament shows that there is willingness from the Government of Zimbabwe to take things very seriously,” he said.
ZIDA now has it all under one roof through the authority's One Stop Investment Services Centre ( OSISC), which houses senior officials from all key regulatory bodies and ministries relevant to the investment process.
The establishment of ZIDA is one of the successes of the Government's economic reforms aimed at rejuvenating the productive sector and creating more jobs.
The grand plan is to realise an upper middle-income economy by 2030.