ABIDJAN-- President Emmerson Mnangagwa says Zimbabwe's new government is effecting all-round reforms to guarantee the safety of investments and make the country a comfortable destination for investors to venture into and take advantage of abundant opportunities to create wealth.
Addressing some 1,600 delegates at this year's edition of the AfricaCEO Forum here Monday, President Mnangagwa said foreign direct investment (FDI) was a key ingredient in Zimbabwe's quest for economic re-birth.
The Africa CEO Forum runs on the same lines as the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland, and is the continent's largest meeting of decision-makers in the public and private sectors as well as global investors. Zimbabwe is participating at the forum for the first time.
We have the resolve and political will to institute and ingrain clear, consistent, coherent and friendly-to-business policies which will allow for a vibrant private sector which can thrive and meaningfully contribute to our national aspirations and development agenda, President Mnanagwa told delegates at the opening ceremony of the two-day forum.
Zimbabwe is alive to the fact that capital goes to where it feels safe. We continue as a government to put in place all necessary measures that will entrench our democracy and lower the risk of doing business in our country.
We guarantee safety of all investments and the respect of property rights, BIPPAS (Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements) and the right of investors to repatriate profits within the confines of ours laws."
President Mnangagwa, who got the platform to speak first ahead of host President Allasane Outtara and his Ghanian counterpart, Nana Akufo-Adoo of Ghana, is leading a delegation of private and public sector chief executives who are also participating at the forum which is running under the theme, African Champions, its transformation time.
To facilitate investment and participation of the private sector in economic rejuvenation,President Mnangagwa said his government was not only democratising the country but was also instituting sound market principles".
My government will strive to eliminate all investment impediments, bureaucratic bottlenecks, public sector lethargy and deliberate inefficiencies and corruption as that impede economic growth and go against our mantra that Zimbabwe is open for business, he said.
We are committed to participatory governance, accountability and transparency in the economic sphere as well as in all socio-political activities.
Investment opportunities, he said, abounded in sectors such as agriculture, agro-business, value addition and processing, infrastructure development, mining, infrastructure development and manufacturing.
Highlighting the vast investment opportunities in Zimbabwe's mining sector, he said: With us, the question is not which minerals we have, but it is simpler to ask which minerals we do not have.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK
