Dubai investors eye Zim

Dubai, (New Ziana)-Zimbabwe is expecting a delegation of prospective investors from the United Arab Emirates to visit the country soon to scout for investment opportunities in various sectors, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Prof. Mthuli Ncube, who accompanied President Emmerson Mnangagwa for an Africa-Emirati conference here, said the investor interest had been generated by a strong pitch by the Head of State.

He said Zimbabwe’s investment sales pitch had caught the eye of many UAE businesses and investors.

On Monday, President Mnangagwa urged UAE businesses to consider investing in the value addition of Zimbabwe’s minerals and agricultural produce, currently exported in their raw form.

Prof Ncube told local journalists he was confident Zimbabwe would draw investment from the UAE after taking part in the conference.

“We are not leaving Dubai empty- handed. In fact we expect a delegation from Dubai to visit Zimbabwe soon and we have had conversations (with) government officials who have assured us that they will send a delegation to look deep into the opportunities in Zimbabwe and try to invest,” he said.

Prof Ncube said UAE investors were particularly keen to put their money in the mining and tourism sectors.

“They are also a great potential partner for us in Zimbabwe as they are one of the biggest buyers of our diamonds and gold. Also it is a transit point and the diamonds end up elsewhere, so does the gold.

“And also they are keen to invest in the tourism sector, in the pharmaceutical sector, in the health sector in Zimbabwe and also in the mining sector. So we see potential for investment in all the major sectors of Zimbabwe,” he said.

Prof Ncube said he used the Global Business Forum to assure investors from this region that Zimbabwe was committed to implementing a raft of political, economic and social reforms all aimed at improving the cost of doing business.

“Their concerns were that we do not have enough incentives and also the power outages we are currently facing. And my response was that the power outages were an opportunity for investment in solar and other power production strategies.”

“I was telling these investors that Zimbabwe is putting in place incentives, taxes and necessary incentives and improving the environment to do business for investors to come in. We told them that we are resolving all the issues they are concerned with,” he said.

Prof Ncube said the introduction of the new currency would also go a long way in stabilising liquidity challenges that the investors were worried about.

“We said look, we have introduced our own currency, so we will be able to deal much better with the issues of liquidity than before when we had foreign currency that we were using as our own currency. We will be able to address liquidity issues going forward,” he said.
New Ziana