Zimbabwe recently witnessed the flying in of US and European Union delegates into Harare. The European team met President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday while US Senators visited the Zimbabwean leader during the weekend. With relations between Zimbabwe and the West having referred to as ‘hostile’ in the past what would this mean for the African country?!
The coming in of Western delegates to Zimbabwe could be translated as hope of economic recovery. Visits could be a strong indicator of Economic recovery still exists in Zimbabwe as the said Western based investors seem interested in doing business. The country has since witnessed the Nigerian business ‘come’ to Zimbabwe through Aliko Dangoti’s team which is expected to meet President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Minister of Mines and Mining Development. Delegates from the European Union and the United States have already met the President and have since discussed economic issues.
According to Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo, the European team came to Zimbabwe to discuss political and economic issues with the Zimbabwean leader.
“I can assure you that the discussions centred on a number of political, economic and other relations between us and the EU and in the end it was clear that the EU delegation is impressed by what is happening in the country and what efforts the new Government is making,” Simon Khaya Moyo said in the Herald Newspaper.
The US team of Senators which visited Zimbabwe’s leader highlighted interest in the Political and Economic landscape.
“The President has continued in the spirit of his speech at his inauguration, the opinion published in New York Times in reference to earlier, but today he was more specific, he walked through specific steps both towards improving the economic environment and the steps towards election things that would happen…”
American Ambassador to Zimbabwe Harry Thomas recently raised hope as he said that there is no excuse for the African country not to be very wealthy Economically given its Human Capital.
“This is the place that I have lived the most other than the US, so my wish to Zimbabwe on a personal level only the best because of such tremendous human capital, and I know given the opportunity that this country will soar. There is no excuse for this country not to be a very very wealth country in terms of economics for the way it is terms of human capital,” said Ambassador Thomas.
Zimbabwe has also received Russian interest with the Russian Foreign Minister flying into Harare. In addition, President Mnangagwa was also in China for Economic and Trade.
Although there are signs of hope for Zimbabwe to get investors from the Western countries, there has been a problem of the wait-and-see approach that investors have taken on Zimbabwe. Most Investors seem to be interested with the upcoming elections – to most, a healthy democracy reflects a stable environment potentially conducive for big business.
This was highlighted by Bloomberg
“It’s going to take a lot more confidence building before you get majors investing big monies,” said Ben Davis, a London Based analyst at Liberum Capital Ltd.
“They need a bit more certainty, and that can’t just happen with words” he concluded.