Zim moves to calm investors

president emmerson mnangagwa (pictured) has moved to calm market concerns over the obtaining business climate, as he gave fresh undertakings to iron out hurdles to investment under his “Zimbabwe is open for business” plan.

his five-year-long campaign to reverse four decades of economic mismanagement had recently come under the spotlight after annual inflation returned to haunt the country, a decade after a 500 billion percent rate in 2008 ended with a currency crash.

The annual inflation rate hit 285,02% last month, from 191% in July, after headwinds including exchange rate volatilities hit the southern african country.

last month, Finance and economic development minister, mthuli ncube cut 2022 gross domestic product (gdp) growth targets to 4,6%, from a 5,5% forecast announced in december.

mnangagwa took the opportunity presented by the inaugural Zimbabwe annual investor Forum — a product of the

and piggybankadvisor — to assure investors that he was scaling up efforts to improve the investment climate.

This would be crucial for his plan to transform Zimbabwe into an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.

“as investors pursue business interests in Zimbabwe, rest assured that my government is open to dialogue towards efficient and transparent regulations as well as industry specific competitiveness strategies,” mnangagwa said.

“The Zimbabwe investment and development agency (Zida) is ready to facilitate the processing of investment proposals, thereby adding the much-needed convenience to investors and significantly reducing bureaucratic red tape and the cost of doing business.

“position yourselves at the forefront of the ongoing transformation, modernisation and industrialisation of our great country, by investing in Zimbabwe.

“as a government, we are indeed on a course which has seen robust and responsive trade and investment policy strategies that are pushing the country along on its current path of recovery and long-term growth.

our cross-cutting reforms have to date enhanced the investment environment and seen greater participation of the private sector,” he added.

mnangagwa spoke as executives and economic analysts attending the event warned that while several reforms had been implemented, they were a fraction of the scale of interventions required to stabilise Zimbabwe’s troubled economy.

The depreciation of Zimbabwe’s currency was recently halted through the introduction of gold coins, which diverted speculators from sourcing forex from the parallel market, where

The president said Zimbabweans must work together in rebuilding the country.

“i recall that earlier this year, alpha media holdings (amh) also hosted the international energy Conference, in the resort City of victoria Falls.

The creation of such platforms is commendable and demonstrates the group’s commitment to promote Zimbabwe as an attractive