ED back from Dubai
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa returned home yesterday from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with his team of Zimbabwean businesspeople and officials, after attending the 5th Global Business Forum on Africa that ended on Tuesday.
Themed “Scale up Africa”, the meeting provided a platform to explore business opportunities between Africa and the UAE.
The highly subscribed meeting was attended by African Heads of State and Government such as Liberian President George Weah and top business executives.
The President attended the meeting at the invitation of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai.
President Mnangagwa was accompanied by ministers Professor Mthuli Ncube ( Finance and Economic Development) and Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu (Environment, Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality Industry).
President Mnangagwa took the opportunity to market Zimbabwe to potential investors from across the globe.
After a discussion on revitalising Zimbabwe’s economy held on Monday, potential investors scrambled to meet President Mnangagwa for detailed enquiries on investment opportunities in Zimbabwe.
In his frank presentation, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe had introduced austerity measures to stabilise the economy.
He said the measures were painful but necessary to bring back the economy on a robust recovery path.
“The first thing we did when we came in was to introduce austerity measures. They are painful but it was a necessity that we walk that road to stabilise the economy,” said President Mnangagwa.
“We have moved away from a basket of currencies to a mono currency.”
Among other things, President Mnangagwa said the country was implementing a raft of measures to create a conducive environment safe for investment.
He said he was keen to see a prosperous Zimbabwe and had committed his life to work for his country.
President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe had the potential to industrialise and modernise its economy using modern technologies.
“Opening Zimbabwe, I would want to leapfrog the modernisation and industrialisation of Zimbabwe by attracting skills, technology and global capital to catch up with the developing world,” said President Mnangagwa.
“There is no need to re-invent the wheel. I believe here we have people with capacity to help us beneficiate our minerals like diamonds. We also have gold and we can only realise their benefits if we are embraced by the international community.”
On the sidelines of the meeting, President Mnangagwa held a bilateral meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to cement relations between Harare and Dubai.
As a result of President Mnangagwa’s engagement and re-engagement efforts, a high-powered business delegation from the UAE had confirmed its visit to Harare soon.
This was confirmed by Prof Ncube in an interview with journalists from Zimbabwe.
He said the reforms being implemented by Zimbabwe were bearing positive fruits and investors were convinced that the country was on the right path to recovery.