Online Reporter
ZIMBABWE is now capitalising on its growing reputation as a stable and dependable supplier of a range of goods and a respectable and profitable country to invest in and trade with.
ZimTrade, the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority have joined forces to organise a Zimbabwe Business Forum in New York City this month overlapping with the UN General Assembly high level session.
That ensures a large potential international audience, to add to the large potential American participation in the financial and commercial capital of the world’s largest economy.
While planning must have been in the pipeline for a while, recent findings by global financial institutions make this a really good time to step out.
The International Monetary Fund reported recently that Zimbabwe is managing its public finances exceptionally well, hitting the targets set under the Staff Monitored Programme; the World Bank has removed Zimbabwe from its list of fragile and conflict-affected countries.
At the same time, the good results investors from many parts of the world have been seeing under the Second Republic have now reached the attention of US banks, with Citibank, the third largest American Bank, making it clear recently that Zimbabwe was not only ripe for investment, but that American investors should not miss out.
Also Zimbabwe last year topped the prestigious Forbes “must visit” list of countries and that must have translated already into visits by some influential people as well as making it clear that the country was a safe and worthwhile destination.
The three organising bodies have made sure they are fully backed by Zimbabwe’s private sector local companies, international buyers, investors, financiers and development partners, so participants in the business forum can get their information from a wide variety of sources.
The theme of the forum is, “Global Challenges. Zimbabwean Solutions. Shared Prosperity.” With supply chains of many products upset by recent conflicts and other problems, Zimbabwe wants to make it clear what it can supply to fill gaps now and to build up those long-term relationships in trade and investment that bring prosperity.
Our national policy of adding value to basic commodities dug out of the ground or grown in the fields, is another helpful advantage. Besides offering opportunities for greater investment, it also means that buyers can procure finished and semi-finished products quickly.
As technologies change extremely fast these days, factory owners cannot be wanting tonnes of ore dumped at their gates. They want the processed product that can simply be fed into their production runs with minimum of fuss.
International trade in standard components has been growing, the next stage up, and that places a premium of stable and dependable supply chains, that when you order something for delivery in two weeks, it appears in two weeks.
We are not going to get anything given to us on a plate. We have to be able to sell what we can offer and the advantages of dealing with Zimbabwe.
But we now have something rather good to offer potential investors and potential buyers, as well as a decent market of our own. The Second Republic, from the start, has emphasised a pro-business and pro-investment environment, along with a foreign policy of being friends to everyone and an enemy of none.
The policies are not just talk, they have been backed by the required legal and regulatory changes.
We have straightforward investment and tax codes; we have rational and straightforward employment, planning and environmental regulations; we have been making it easy to buy our products and ship them out.
We have a strong commercial courts system, meaning any disputes can be sorted out quickly without long and expensive delays.
We have also now built up an impressive list of investors and buyers who have found Zimbabweans are dependable, give value for money and, in short, do not mess others around.
And it is this, along with our economic achievements, that we need to highlight. In a world of global challenges, we are dependable and are believers in delivering quality. That now counts for a lot.
The forum also allows our suppliers and exporters to find out the best way of penetrating US markets and what sort of products and levels of service that market requires.
We have been building up our presence in many markets, each advance requiring careful adherence to the local standards and rules and making sure we offer the right quality at the right price.
That stance will be needed in every new market our producers move into and they are now well aware of what they need to do.
The political barriers to the US market have been removed, but we still have to make sure we have the products Americans want and can follow every single standard they set.
ZimTrade, ZIDA and ZTA are now capitalising on the successes of our public and private sectors under the Second Republic, and those successes are worth capitalising on.
