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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
CONFEDERATION of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Mr Busisa Moyo says Zimbabwe needs to increase consultation with the diaspora community to attract the much needed foreign direct investment.
Speaking during a stakeholder consultative nation branding seminar in Bulawayo on Wednesday, he said people living in the diaspora constitute a large community, which can be relied on to attract investment into the country.
Mr Moyo, who is also chief executive officer for United Refineries Limited, said the diaspora community holds the keys to successful engagement with potential investors as they have close links with foreign businesses.
“The diaspora community is our biggest impediment, they are negative; they are so negative about Zimbabwe,” said Moyo.
“When they talk about Zimbabwe, you cannot expect others to be investing in Zimbabwe when someone who was born here in Luveve (Bulawayo) stands up and says ‘no Zimbabwe is like this’. They (foreign investors) are not going to come and thus our work in terms of branding needs to be convincing enough or buy in from the diaspora community.”
Mr Moyo could not hide his frustration when he revealed that during a recent business mission to Washington, United States, their efforts to lure investment suffered criticism by fellow Zimbabweans resident in that country.
“In Washington, we went there and another Zimbabwean had just arrived at the venue of the seminar before us to tell them that no, forget about investing Zimbabwe. So, already you are trying to work against another Zimbabwean, so they (foreign investors) said well, ‘you Zimbabweans why don’t you have a meeting in your own country?” said Mr Moyo.
“We really need to look at how we leverage Diaspora in this national branding.”
The CZI president said the country was endowed with vast investment opportunities in different sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, Information Communication Technology.
He said there was a need to invest in the country taking into cognisance that most of the technology or equipment in various sectors was obsolete.
“The need for FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) touches on a lot of other things. For example, tourism products, a lot of them are tired, they need investment, we have got some hotels that I cannot mention by name…but if you go to some of the hotels, I have been going there for the last 20 years training as an accountant and they still look the same. The beds still sounds the same when you came first. This is not good for the tourism product,” Mr Moyo said.
Zimbabwe’s FDI inflows tumbled from $545 million in 2014 to $421 million last year- a 23 percent drop.
— @okazunga
Online Reporter