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Zimbabwe welcomes investors and businesspeople from all countries and the latest major group, a team of American businesspeople from Georgia in the United States, comes in under the same policy of Zimbabwe being a friend to all and an enemy to none.

This particular delegation is from the Global Opportunities Committee of the Atlanta Black Chambers, a grouping of African-American business people from the very large, progressive and dynamic city in Georgia. 

They are, as their title suggests, seeking out investment and trade opportunities for members, and their latest visit is to Southern Africa and includes Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwean business people should take the visit and the opportunities seriously. Fairly obviously the ABC members have open minds, and by devoting a week to the Zimbabwe leg of their trip are showing that they are seriously minded and want to have a good hard look at the opportunities.

They have been in contact with the Zimbabwe Embassy in the US, and in fact Zimbabwean Ambassador Dr Tadeous Chifamba happens to be in Zimbabwe and is continuing to his job of greasing the wheels. 

The Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency, which has the main function of welcoming potential investors and making sure they have all the information and help they need, is in action and contacts have already been made with the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, the representative of local private sector industrialists. So all the bits are in place.

The fact that the ABC groups African-American business people simply means that they are more likely to be willing to take a good hard look at Africa, in the same way that an Italian-American businessperson might wish to look at Italy more intently. 

In other words, they will have come with an open mind, but are not likely to listen to excuses or accept the second rate. They are, after all, successful American business people looking at expanding and will almost certainly want that expansion of their own businesses to be successful.

Perhaps more important is that they come from Atlanta, one of the most progressive cities in the US. 

Although it had the headquarters of the largest soft drink company, it did not amount to a lot until the civil rights era in the 1960s and the end of the vicious discrimination and segregation that marred so much of the southern states in the US.

It then started booming, and booming in a lot of the new industries and new businesses that have been growing over the last 60 years. It built on that success, and even hosted Olympic games as it lit up the lights on the maps, and contains a high concentration of technical and technically-orientated modern businesses that make up any country’s new economy an expanding economy.

These are precisely the kind of businesses that Zimbabwe needs as investors, and precisely the sort of businesses that many Zimbabwean companies need to be in contact with to establish trade relations. 

In some ways the dynamic success that turned a modest southern American city into a major centre of modern industry and businesses is something Zimbabweans could learn from. 

Fairly obviously Atlanta businesspeople, including the original ABC members, did not race ahead by wringing their hands. Very hard work and grabbing successful business openings must have been the major cause, although as the Atlanta Olympics showed, having some community spirit must have been an important factor.

The ABC group has brought the trade expert they want, to make sure that any potential deals make sense in both directions.

Any successful trade has to have two winners, one each end of every deal, otherwise they are useless and when people are hammering out a deal, or a type of deal, all the loopholes and other difficulties need to be sorted out so that the trade just flows smoothly. 

A week is a long time to have a good look, and meet people, and explore opportunities that might exist. Then will come some very hard work by the Zimbabweans, mostly in the private sector since the Government does not run much business or trade, but with the Government greasing the wheels.

This is making sure that we keep our promises of making business easy, and making opening businesses easy, and making investing in businesses easy. In other words, where potential deals open up, we do not need to hear these are stifled by inefficiency, in private or public sectors.

Again it is important for the Zimbabwean side in any potential deal to be quite open and upfront in discussions. As Zimbabweans move more and more into the wider world they need to have the reputation of integrity and transparency. 

That will overcome a lot and be a major competitive advantage.