Euromoney sets tone for investment

suffered from wrong perceptions created by the international media, a Euromoney Conferences senior official said yesterday.
Euromoney emerging markets director for Africa and the Middle East, Mr Richard Banks, said his organisation would help Zimbabwe rebuild its profile as a prime destination for FDI.
“There is an immense amount of ignorance about what happens in Zimbabwe and what Zimbabwe really is. We would not be here if we did not believe that Zimbabwe has what it takes to attract,” he said.
He spoke ahead of the Zimbabwe Investment Conference which opens in Harare today. It is being co-hosted by Euro-money Conferences and the Government.
The conference is expected to lay the foundation for building a better country profile attractive to FDI.
High profile speakers include President Mugabe, who will deliver the keynote address and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Professor Arthur Mutambara.
While Zimbabwe has held investment conferences before, the Euromoney conference is different in that apart from the organisers’ high profile and wide reach, the event will largely focus on how to raise and arrange financing.
Mr Banks said the country had many advantages compared to other African countries. The advantages included basic infrastructure, an educated workforce and mineral resources.
He said they expected to achieve better understanding among all stakeholders on what needed to done to attract foreign investment to Zimbabwe, what the opportunities were and how to identify them.
After a decade of economic instability Zimbabwe requires an estimated US$8 billion to rebuild the economy back to its 1997 level.
“The potential is definitely there: you have a well-educated workforce. You have mineral resources, you have civil service and infrastructure, (and) you have institutions of Government,” said Mr Banks.
He said Zimbabwe could not be compared with countries such as Libya, which are going through civil unrest and would need time to rebuild their institutions and infrastructure to return the economy to a path to growth.
He said a list of high profile speakers from Zimbabwe and around the world would help to explore ways to unlock the latent economic potential in the country.
Among the speakers are Finance Minister Tendai Biti, Economic Planning Minister Tapiwa Mashakada, African Development Bank and Afreximbank presidents Donald Kaberuka and Jean Louis Ekra, respectively.
Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono, Euromoney Conferences director Mr Christopher Garnet and German ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Albrecht Conze and former Prime Minister of Georgia Mr Lado Gurgenidze are among the expected high profile presenters.
The two-day conference will discuss ways to survive in a challenging environment in Zimbabwe and profile investment opportunities in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, tourism, infrastructure, banking and energy and power sectors.
It would also discuss issues around foreign direct investment and the current topic in Zimbabwe, at the moment – indigenisation and empowerment – as it relates to FDI.
The conference will try to build on a similar, but smaller event, held in Instabul, Turkey, on the sidelines of a World Bank meeting, which proved popular with investors.
Mr Banks said what had raised interest on the conference was the fact that a lot of promises made by Zimbabwe at the World Bank meeting had come to pass.
These included the introduction of the multicurrency regime and the reduction of the annual inflation, which have gone a long way in stabilising the economy.