Zim economic reforms paying off – Tourism Minister

Dubai,(New Ziana)-Economic and political reforms being implemented by the government are making Zimbabwe an attractive destination for investment and tourism, a Cabinet Minister said on Tuesday.

Since assuming Zimbabwe’s top job, President Emmerson Mnangagwa‘s administration has implemented a raft of political, economic and social reforms all aimed at improving the investment climate in the country.

Environment and Tourism Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu told journalists on the sidelines of the Global Business Forum here that the reforms were beginning to yield positive results.

“The reform agenda is being felt right across. There was someone who indicated that they invested in Zimbabwe and has seen over the last year and a half reforms beginning to pay dividends and that Zimbabwe is right on course.

“We are happy that even investors are feeling the reforms that we are implementing,” he said.

Ndlovu said the level of interest in Zimbabwe at the Global Business Forum was ‘amazing.’

“The level of interest in Zimbabwe is amazing. We had high level presentations. The President marketed Zimbabwe so well, we saw people scrambling for him afterwards. We are quite excited.

“We were quite clear that we are opening up investments in tourism particularly for hotel infrastructure. We were sharing the good stories about our good conservation, our wildlife and numerous tourism facilities.
There are very good discussions around potential investments into our hospitality industry.

“We are likely to be having visits to see opportunities for investments in Victoria Falls in a very short space of time,” he said.

Ndlovu said Zimbabwe would soon embark on aggressive marketing of some of its little known tourist attractions in all provinces of the country.

“We have over-marketed the Victoria Falls. We want to open up Zimbabwe.
“By next year we should be marketing tourism destinations in all our provinces. We will be developing tourism strategies for each and every province,” he said.

He said plans were underway to make all tourist attractions accessible by air.

“We also need to focus on investing in our domestic connectivity. Someone in Victoria Falls cannot go to Masvingo because it means you have to get there by road. You cannot even go to Kariba from Victoria Falls unless you do so by road.

“The Minister of Finance has said he is focusing on completing the aerodrome in Kariba so that next year, we should be having small aircrafts landing there,” he said.
New Ziana