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Minister Bimha

Golden Sibanda Senior Business Reporter
FOCUS falls on Zimbabwe today at the ongoing Milan Expo with the country seeking to use the global limelight to promote trade and investment inflows, Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha said. Zimbabwe will be joined by 147 countries from across the world for the Zimbabwe Day commemorations during which the country will advertise the abundant investment opportunities in the country.

Minister Bimha is already in the Italian city for the event after leading a high-powered delegation of Government ministers and officials from key economic ministries and private sector for the event. In an interview shortly before his departure on Friday Minister Bimha said they would promote trade and investment into Zimbabwe, especially into the sectors of tourism, agriculture, finance and mining.

He said the expo was inclined towards food and security, but the opportunity would be seized to promote trade and investment, which efforts have been ongoing since the expo started on May 1, 2015. “We will have a national day on the 31st of August; there will also be business forum. “I am leading a delegation that consists of a number of ministries; Tourism, SMEs, Finance, Economic Planning, Mining, Media and Information and Agriculture and (trade and investment institutions) ZIA and ZimTrade,” Minister Bimha said.

The Industry and Commerce Minister expressed gratitude at the support rendered by the Italian Government towards putting together the Zimbabwe pavilion to enable the country to exhibit there. He said Zimbabwean officials who have been on the ground since the expo began in May had done exceptionally well, as they were able to showcase the country in positive light after earlier negative publicity.

Minister Bimha said Zimbabwe sought to take the opportunity to further promote trade and investment in Zimbabwe after last doing so at an expo during the Shanghai Expo held about five years ago. The objective of the country’s participation at the Milan Expo falls in line with targets espoused in the Zim-Asset policy document and Sadc’s industrialisation strategy to produce value added products.

“Therefore, once we get to that, we should be able to find markets. To create that, the issue of networking and engaging with other countries can never be emphasised,” Minister Bimha said. “We would like to boost intra–Africa trade and make use of the Interim Economic Partnership with the European Union.

“We want to exploit the market offered by the EU because we are a signatory, but the challenge is our capacity to be able to produce enough quantities and good quality, which affects the cost,” he said. The expo presents Zimbabwe an opportunity to demonstrate what it produces and also learn what the others can in this modern global village.

Already, the country has received rave reviews at the expo with interest in the Zimbabwe stand rated among the top five at the last count. The huge interest has partly been due to exploits of an Italian company exhibiting crocodile meat burgers and crocodile meet from Zimbabwe and the allure of the ever irresistible majestic Victoria Falls.