Zim showcases its opportunities

Dubai (New Ziana) – Economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe over two decades ago coupled with the current covid-19 pandemic pose a serious threat to the country’s development agenda.
Sanctions alone which were imposed as punishment for the land reform programme, have caused economic damages estimated at over $100 billion.
On the other hand, the pandemic has disturbed the widely commended economic reform agenda being implemented by government in pursuit of an upper middle income economy by 2030.
Without doubt, Zimbabwe has and continues to endure some difficult times.
But, as Albeit Einstein once said” “In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.”
This is the message that Zimbabwe is bringing to the world at the ongoing Expo2020 Dubai.
Exhibiting under the theme, “Zimbabwe, the land of great opportunities,” the Southern African country is here to tell the world that inspite of its various challenges, the country is rife with exciting investment opportunities and is ready for positive engagements in several other spheres of cooperation.
Expo2020 Dubai- Zimbabwe commissioner general, Mary Mubi said Zimbabwe’s participation at the world Expo and the pavilion design aptly summed up Einstein’s words.
“There is a lot in our economy that we need to showcase. We are located in the opportunities district, we could have chosen mobility or sustainability but that is not to say that we are not looking at issues of mobility and sustainability but we chose opportunities because we felt that this was more in line with what we wanted to highlight. That is the opportunities in the country in various sectors,” she said in an interview with Zimbabwean media here.
The government has cited the re-engagement and engagement agenda and attracting increased foreign direct investments as crucial to the attainment of vision 2030.
“The Dubai Expo, we have to look at it in the context of the Second Republic quest to further the engagement process and we believe that this is an extremely important platform for doing that but not just to engage but also to excite people to look at the country in a different way.
“We are exhibiting under the opportunities cluster so we want to excite people about the various opportunities that are available in Zimbabwe. It is also a platform where we tell our story, our narrative, but also learn from others, because we are not an island, we need partnerships, we need visitors to come to Zimbabwe to visit our tourism sites.”
Mubi said Zimbabwe’s pavilion had attracted keen interest from potential investors, tourists and ordinary Expo attendees who were keen on getting information about Zimbabwe.
“We realised that the pavilion was not sufficient enough to showcase the opportunities so we then realised that during the six months it was important not just to have the pavilion but to mobilise the key sectors to have a calendar of events where we then have mines coming for two three days having an exhibition on mines, tourism, doing the same, arts and culture doing the same and the other sectors doing the same.
“So part of our presence here in Dubai is that yes we have our pavilion, but during the six months we will highlight the opportunities in the country through sector based events that will be coordinated through Ministries and their associations so that we punctuate that with business to business interactions,” she said.
“One of the things we have done as the Expo organisers is to get the services of a local company that will help us match our businesspeople with would be business investors not just from the UAE but also from other countries. We know that the UAE has huge potential in terms of the horticultural sector so we need to have our agriculture and all the related associations to come and engage and find partners, we also know that the UAE is interested in our mining sector.”
According to the event organisers, the expo will give participants the chance to deliberate on how to create a better, more sustainable future.
The Expo, which was due to open at the same time last year, will run under the theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the future,” until March 2022.
At least 192 countries as well as businesses and multilateral organisations are participating at the expo.
New Ziana