Online Reporter
ZIMBABWE has recorded many positives since it embarked on the engagement and re-engagement initiative that seeks to either establish bilateral relations or amend broken relations with all nations of the world guided by the mantra, “Friend to all and enemy to none”.
President Mnangagwa who is leading the initiative, has taken advantage of international platforms such as the United Nations meetings to engage world leaders and tell the correct story about Zimbabwe. These engagements have helped to correct the falsehoods and misleading narratives about Zimbabwe.
This has resulted in improved relations with many countries across the globe that now want to either do business with Zimbabwe or invest in the country taking advantage of our rich natural resources such as minerals.
Only this week, Zimbabwe and the European Union (EU) marked a historic milestone with the launch of the inaugural EU-Zimbabwe Business Forum in Harare, an event poised to reshape trade and investment dynamics between Zimbabwe and EU countries.
The three-day business forum, themed “Unlocking Trade and Investment under the Global Gateway Initiative,” attracted over 300 participants including business executives, investors, policymakers and entrepreneurs from across Zimbabwe and 12 EU Member States.
EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Jobst von Kirchmann described the forum as the product of an ambitious vision conceived just one year ago.
“When we looked at the positive development of trade and investment with the EU over the last years, we felt that the time was ripe to bring EU companies to Zimbabwe,” he said.
Trade between Zimbabwe and the EU has increased by 30 percent in the past three years, reaching US$880 million while EU foreign direct investment has nearly doubled to US$870 million driven largely by the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
The forum, jointly organised by the EU Delegation to Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (Zida), ZimTrade and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) was focused on unlocking further commercial opportunities in key sectors including horticulture, agriculture and agro-processing, renewable energy and mining value chains.
Cross-cutting enablers such as logistics, financial services and vocational skills development were also discussed. More than 600 companies applied to participate but only 300 were confirmed due to space limitations.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has assured the EU investors that they will enjoy ease of repatriating business profits, dividends and disinvestment. Zimbabweans should take advantage of these positive developments to grow the economy and improve their livelihoods.
