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The Minister of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services Professor Jonathan Moyo (right) flanked by Zimpapers Group Chief Operations Officer and Editor in Chief Pikirai Deketeke, Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Lin Lin and an embassy official Mr Liu Dau follow proceedings at The Herald Business breakfast meeting yesterday

Victoria Ruzvidzo Business Focus
It’s confirmed! Zimbabwe’s economy is headed in the right direction and those that are reluctant to play their part will surely be left sulking. The train is not stopping and they could be left stranded.
The future for this economy is bright. Not the too distant future but the forseeable one. Listening to Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa’s account of efforts being made by Government and deals secured with China at a breakfast seminar hosted by The Herald Business yesterday, one got the feeling that we are headed somewhere.

The quality of presentations and the ensuing discussions reflected a Government that is serious and practical in rebuilding the economy, and a business community that has been aching for such kind of engagements to clear the road of impediments such as mistrust and discord between the two.

The Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation may have largely appeared to be lying dormant but this conclusion has since been refuted. It is on a roll and significant results will begin to show soon.

This country is now even making “token” loan repayments to creditors who include the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank. This shows progress though we still have a long way to go given our debt position as a country.

The highly successful breakfast meeting brought together Minister Chinamasa and the business community. The meeting exceeded its billing.
Zimpapers has launched a series that will see similar meetings in Bulawayo, Mutare and Victoria Falls on infrastructure, mining and tourism respectively. Such kind of engagements between business and Government will surely help stakeholders channel efforts towards one common goal: to see the economy ticking again.

At yesterday’s meeting,  frank discussions were the order of the day as two of the most critical components of Zimbabwe’s economic engine: Government and business, came face to face in their quest to unravel the mysteries surrounding the President’s visit to China and other issues pertaining to the economy.

Hats off to Minister Chinamasa who gave a very good account of himself. He acquitted himself very well and left many feeling that he was up to speed with issues and exhibited the right attitude required to transform this economy. He did not skirt questions but gave it back raw.

This was a great preamble to the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy review statement he is scheduled to present today.
President Mugabe and his team have been criticised in the past few weeks for embarking on a “futile” mission to China, with some newspapers and online publications insisting he came back empty-handed. But Minister Chinamasa disabused the meeting of this wrong conclusion, saying that this particular mission and the other two he has made to China were very fruitful.

He gave a rundown of agreements and deals made in terms of infrastructure, agriculture, energy and power and many others that will take off shortly. Already such parastatals as TelOne and NetOne will benefit from finance facilities that have already been sealed, as reported elsewhere in the paper, I am sure.

Republic of China Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Lin Lin was on hand to confirm that there was commitment right from his President Xi Jinping and state and non-state financial institutions to assist Zimbabwe.

Minister Chinamasa stressed that all the deals were settled in a professional manner that will see a win-win situation for both countries.
Of course fears have been that the emerging giant is out to exploit Africa’s natural resources, leaving the continent poorer in the process.

This is not the case if what Minister Chinamasa and the good ambassador said is anything to go by.
A profound statement made by the minister was that “unless you have relationships you cannot do business. You need to invest time and, money and other resources to build relationships”.

This was also in apparent reference to President Mugabe’s State visit to China and others the minister has made to that country to seek re-engagement with financial partners. His January visit to China was about building bridges and restoring confidence with Chinese banks that Zimbabwe was still a bankable project that needed support.

Minister Chinamasa stressed that Zimbabwe’s major challenge was support for the productive sectors, a point that resonated well with the Monetary Policy Statement issued recently by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya, who stressed the need to ensure production was increased so that the import bill would come down and jobs would be created, among other benefits.

Ambassador Lin Lin also described Zimbabwe as a country whose economy can fly. He said the country was on the right track and China would do its best to assist. President Xi Jinping had reiterated his commitment.

Zimbabwe would continue to take advantage of the solid political relationship between the two countries to benefit the economy.
Business leaders also weighed in with their support. Those who spoke were so upbeat about the economy although they expressed reservations in terms of parastatal performance, corruption, delays in projects such as the airport road construction and Government’s sincerity to uplift the economy.

Industrialist Mr Kumbirayi Katsande, who represented business on the panel, was concerned about whether the country was assimilating the way the Chinese conducted business, particularly the way they managed their parastatals.

The Chinese work ethic has helped the country rise from mediocrity to the second largest economy in the world with an average GDP growth of 10 percent per annum.
Furthermore, a public relations practitioner Christina Chima, challenged Zimbabweans not to badmouth the country as this had negative consequences. Investors keen on coming to Zimbabwe were sometimes discouraged from doing so by Zimbabweans themselves. Such an attitude did not have a place in this country any more.

That point was made clear.
Seed Co Corporate Communications manager Marjory Mutemererwa weighed in with her thoughts:
“The Minister (Chinamasa) sounded and looked very honest and truthful even in his body language.

“His emphasis on restoring relationships at a private and at personal level, at corporate level and at national level is so key and critical,” she said.
Overall the mood in the auditorium was that indeed the economy has gone through a rough patch and there has been so much acrimony between Government and business but now things have changed. The parties now want to work together to ensure the targets set out in Zim-Asset are not only achieved but exceeded in many respects.

With such kind of commitment and unity of purpose as displayed yesterday, nothing will stand in Zimbabwe’s way.

In God I trust.

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