Zimbabwe to hold two-day investment conference in SA

The business event, which will run under the theme, “Realising Zimbabwe’s Investment Potential”, will be held in Johannesburg from 1 to 2 March.
Organisers of the event, Africa Exchange, said the conference was focused on giving an overview of economic priority projects available in the country.
“The event’s highlights will include modalities and requirements for interaction between South Africa and Zimbabwe and their protocols for trade and investment such as the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and trade tariffs,” said the organisers.
The conference will also focus on ways of doing business in Zimbabwe with special attention given to employment trends, utility, taxation and key economic drivers.
Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Tapiwa Mashakada is expected to present a paper on economic issues in Zimbabwe.
Representatives of organisations such as the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe, Business Council of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe, Old Mutual and Stanbic Bank will also present papers highlighting investment opportunities available in the country.
The trade and investment conference comes at a time when efforts were being made to attract foreign direct investment in different economic sectors such as mining, agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.
Recently, the Government operationalised the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (Zia) into a fully-fledged one-stop shop centre to streamline the number of days and processes investors have to go through before approval of their projects.
The launching of Zia as a fully-fledged one-stop shop concept saw Zimbabwe reducing the number of days investors had to wait before their projects were approved from 49 to five.
In the past, investors shunned investing in the country because of the number of days they had to wait before the projects were approved.
Last year, the country approved investment projects worth $6,6 billion.