Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa today said that the country’s investment policies must be attractive and rewarding to its people in the diaspora who invest back home.
Writing in his weekly column in the Sunday Mail, Mnangagwa said a whole raft of incentives must be developed and tailor made for them because they deserve the utmost for committing their hard-earned capital to Zimbabwe.
“There is a growing realisation by Zimbabweans in the diaspora that Zimbabwe, their home, presents enormous opportunities for them and foreigners alike,” Mnangagwa said.
“There is a readiness on their part to come back home to invest and to contribute. Our investment policies must, thus, continue to make this not just possible, but rewarding.
“There is a whole raft of incentives we can and should develop, which are tailor-made especially for them. They are, after all, our nationals who are returning home.
“They deserve our utmost welcome as they seek to repatriate skills, share their experience and commit their hard-earned capital to Zimbabwe.”
Mnangagwa welcomed investors from Britain last week and they included Zimbabweans living in that country.
On the just ended elections which the Citizens Coalition for Change continues to dispute, Mnangagwa said they were done and dusted and the coming on investors to the country was a positive signal
“Our recent harmonised elections, which were peaceful, democratic, free, fair and transparent, continue to send positive signals in both diplomatic and business markets around the globe. We need to harness this emerging goodwill to secure our readmission into the Commonwealth and for arrears clearance and debt resolution,” he said.
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Two portentous developments happened last week. First, I hosted a group of investors from the United Kingdom, and later received the new British Ambassador to our country, Zimbabwe.
The group of investors from the UK included Zimbabwean nationals living in that country. The group was led by Mr Algy Cluff, one of the earliest British investors to invest in a free Zimbabwe soon after our independence in 1980. He later disinvested from the country and left, apparently quite an unhappy and disappointed man.
His return, a couple of decades later, thus, suggests the restoration of investor confidence in Zimbabwe, thanks to the far-flung reforms we have instituted, both to make capital feel safe and for the ease of doing business.
Mr Cluff embodies two contradictory lessons for our country, namely, that global capital is timid, sensitive and impatient; secondly, that with suitable reforms and incentives, Zimbabwe is a strong mining proposition quite capable of a strong showing globally. We must build on our unique mineral endowments and sound policies to grow our economy, and to create more jobs for our people, especially the youths.
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