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Minister Chinamasa

Senior Reporter
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said Zimbabwe is open for investment and is ready to engage the international community on that front.
Officially opening a two-day Sapes Trust conference on the democratisation process and reinforcing re-engagement with the global community in Harare yesterday, Minister Chinamasa said Government was putting in place a flexible policy framework to attract foreign investment.

“Zimbabwe is open for foreign direct investment from all nations of the world, whether these be in the North, South, East or West,” he said.
“The business partnerships we forge must be without preconditions.”

Minister Chinamasa said Zimbabwe’s friendly overtures should be reciprocated through an unconditional lifting of all Western sanctions on the country by the West.

“Government’s efforts and commitments towards re-engagement need to be reciprocated by the same efforts from the global community, by honestly re-engaging with Zimbabwe,” said Minister Chinamasa.

“The removal of sanctions, as the Government has always maintained, is an important pre-condition to Zimbabwe’s re-engagement with the global community.

“Furthermore, the removal of sanctions will also constitute a critical step in Zimbabwe’s efforts towards economic growth and stability.”
Minister Chinamasa said Zimbabwe was a small and peaceful country that did not pursue confrontation with any other nation.

“Zimbabwe is looking for new friendships, new opportunities while consolidating old ones,” he said. “We are looking for mutually beneficial economic relationships, not confrontation. We are too small a country to pursue a policy of confrontation.”

Minister Chinamasa said sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe were a confrontational policy by their authors.
He said Zimbabwe was seeking investment power generation, road and rail networks, water and irrigation infrastructure, and ICTs among others.

Minister Chinamasa said Government was committed to revamping and re-building the public sector.
On the private sector, he added that the Zimbabwe Investment Authority would be capacitated to ensure that it had full authority to determine investment conditions as a one-stop shop, and to approve FDI.

The Sapes conference was attended by Justice Deputy Minister Fortune Chasi, United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Bruce Wharton, his European Union counterpart Mr Aldo Dell Ariccia and civil society representatives.