Golden Sibanda Senior Business Reporter
A DELEGATION representing 15 Japanese firms is in the country to scout for investment and business partnership opportunities. Alliance Forum Foundation Development Programme facilitated the

investment mission, designed to forge new partnerships, as economic ties between the two countries scale new heights.
The investors are drawn from a cross-section of Japanese industries and have pledged to invest as soon as opportunities arise.

Companies represented in the delegation include Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Central Japan Railway Company, Japan Bank for International Co-operation, Nissin Foods and Rohto Pharmaceutical.
DEFTA Partners (venture capital), King Swing (water treatment), NIPPON KOEI (general consulting), Mitsui Fudosan (urban development), DIC Lifetech (Spirulina production), Toray Industries (water treatment) are also in the delegation.
AFDP head of delegation and board chairman Ambassador George Hara said Japanese firms were keen to invest in Zimbabwe if they could identify mutually beneficial opportunities.

He said Japanese investors had a strong interest in Zimbabwe as one of the key Southern African countries that have strong potential to experience rapid economic development by 2050.

Ambassador Hara spoke after meeting members of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries in Harare. He had earlier met Agriculture, Mechanisation andIrrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made  and Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Mike Bimha.
“By 2015, the total population of Africa, Asia and Latin Africa will reach 85 percent of the entire world. Developing economies are going to be leading after 2050,” he said.

Ambassador Hara said Japanese investors were keen to help Zimbabwe build a “thick” rich middle-class population, which is critical to ensure a stable and prosperous country.
This scenario exists in Japan, a prosperous industrialised nation and the world’s third largest economy after the US and China.

But Ambassador Hara said the Japanese investment model was centred on “public interest capitalism”, which asserts that companies were “public organs of society” and that contributing to society, while engaging in market competition, should be the major objective of corporate entities.

He attacked other capitalist models, saying they favoured shareholders or State capitalism and did not benefit host countries.
AFDP executive director (Zambia) Dr Dev K. Babbar told the meeting the Japanese came on a serious investment and business opportunity-seeking mission.

“We have an interest to see how we can connect Japanese companies to invest in Zimbabwe industries,” he said. “We did not come as jokers, but came to take a serious note of what they can do and how much they want to do it. If partners from Zimbabwe want to come and do business with us, we welcome them. We want to assist them.”

Asked why they were making efforts to invest in Zimbabwe, Mr Babbar said: “We love it, we love Zimbabwe. We think it is one of the best countries to invest in.”