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Cde Simon Khaya Moyo

Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter—
Zimbabwe is ready for business with other countries from any part of the world and is willing to welcome foreign direct investment on a win-win situation, a Cabinet Minister has said. In an interview on Tuesday, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Simon Khaya Moyo said Government’s economic agenda was anchored on economic emancipation of Zimbabweans.

He said his ministry was spear heading a number of initiatives expected to steer sustainable economic activity.

“We welcome investors because we know that some of them are fairly advanced in terms of machinery and knowledge,” he said.

“This is why as a Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, we are moving very fast to ensure that we create a One-Stop Investment Centre.

“We don’t want investors to move from ministry to ministry, from pillar to post and spend three to four months without knowing exactly what they are here for.”

The minister said Government wanted to do away with the bureaucracy that investors go through before they open shop.

He said there had been various exchanges between Zimbabwe and other countries with the intention of establishing or consolidating economic relations.

Minister Khaya Moyo said several foreign investors were willing to pour their capital in Zimbabwe given its divergent resource base.

“We have to make sure that we take serious measures on infrastructural development and indeed on utilities, for instance energy, because once you have problems with energy it is also difficult to develop in the way which you want,” he said.

“We are saying lets get into a game where the outcome is a win-win situation. We are not here to exploit anybody. We are proud of ourselves as a country and we are also proud to promote relationships with other countries.

“By and large, Zimbabwe is ready for business. We must know that nobody will build Zimbabwe for us. It must start from us and we must show that in all we do, (and) exercise maximum discipline. We must also ensure that we don’t nurse corruption because corruption has destroyed nations. We must deal with this animal called corruption ruthlessly.”

Minister Khaya Moyo said Zimbabwe was on the right course to sustainable development given the lead that President Mugabe has taken in spearheading industrialisation.

He said there was need for Government ministries to be co-ordinated in their operations.

“We must not work individually and pronounce policies that are conflicting,” said Minister Khaya Moyo.

“We must have one vision, one destiny and of course I am very satisfied that so far we seem to be on the right track and we believe that the difficulties that our people are going through are temporary.

“We shall do our best as Government to promote quality of lives of our people together and we must show that unity amongst ourselves. We must work together and shun these “isms” that are negative, for instance tribalism and regionalism.”