'Zanu-PF ready to do things differently,' says Chinamasa

FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa says investors should, without delay, grab abundant investment opportunities in the country as this was the right time to do so as government now wanted to do a number of things differently.

Addressing over 300 delegates during the Zimpapers Business Zimbabwe Trade and Investment breakfast in Johannesburg last Friday, Minister Chinamasa said opportunities were enormous.

"Take them, this is the time to do it."

"Please, we're open to any ideas, which produce wealth and contribute to our economic growth. We want to do things differently. People still think about us as in the past; that we're still mired in the trenches. We're out of the trenches," Minister Chinamasa said.

Zimbabwe was rocked by a decade long far reaching economic meltdown, characterised by rampaging inflation, which decimated half the country's gross domestic product and engineered the collapse of several companies.

The meeting was punctuated by repeated calls from the minister, South African firm, Get Bucks chief executive Dave Van Niekerk, Canadian firm Caledonia director Stefan Hayden and SA hotelier, Legacy Group Holdings chairman Bart Dorrestein, for long term not short term positions in Zimbabwe.

The executives, while citing indigenisation as an issue, generally agreed that Zimbabwe was open for investment and offered attractive opportunities.

"If Qatar can work, then I tell you that Zimbabwe can work a hundred times better," said Dorrestein, whose firm is hunting for assets in tourism. He hailed Zimbabwe's human resources as a huge plus for the country.

Minister Chinamasa said government was keen to improve the business environment and relied on investors to point out challenges they faced to help the authorities to assess how they were doing on policy matters.

"We rely on you to be predictable and consistent. Come to us with the challenges because they help us to improve the business environment," he said.

"We will offer a predictable, clear and consistent policy environment in which you can come to invest and prosper," Minister Chinamasa told the delegates.

The policy environment, said the minister, will be anchored on the multicurrency regime, predominantly characterised by the United States dollar. Importantly, the minister said the Government will respect property rights.

Minister Chinamasa said a number of initiatives, including re-engaging bilateral and multilateral lenders, addressing doing business constraints, capacity issues of the central bank, issues plaguing banks and rigidities in the labour market among others were being pursued to enhance confidence.

Further, the Finance minister said efforts were underway to establish special economic zones and ensure policy clarity, especially the country's equity laws, which the majority of investors are raising and have raised over the years.