PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa will mark his first appearance
at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland in a fortnight’s time,
presidential spokesman, George Charamba told The Financial Gazette yesterday.
Mnangagwa’s invitation to attend the elite summit is a
significant step towards Zimbabwe’s reintergration into the international
community.
His predecessor, former President Robert Mugabe, never made
it to the annual summit, although he attended a regional WEF meeting in Durban
last year.
Described as the world’s most high powered networking
event, the WEF takes place in the resort town in the Swiss Alps from January 23
to 26, and is expected to bring together more than 3 000 members of the global
elite, drawn from politics, business and academia.
Among those who will attend the WEF are journalists and
columnists, Hollywood celebrities, researchers, corporate chief executive
officers, global tycoons, and some Heads of State.
“The President has an invitation from Mr Klaus Schwab to
attend Davos,” Charamba told The Financial Gazette.
“We are busy preparing for the forum right now. Mr
Mnangagwa is going to Davos representing Zimbabwe,” said Charamba, the
permanent secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting
Services.
Referencing Mnangagwa’s stated commitment to avoid travel
to countries where diplomats or lower level officials could be sent at reduced
cost, Charamba said the president was going to meet high-level investors.
“That is not delegated because it is an interface between
the investment community and Heads of State and Governments,” Charamba said.
Economist John Robertson said the WEF is an opportunity for
Mnangagwa to present Zimbabwe’s investment case to the world.
He said Davos presents a rare chance for the President to
rebuild Zimbabwe’s bad image.
“People have an image of Zimbabwe that is low at the
moment,” Robertson said.
“He will have the opportunity to change this image.
Countries like Rwanda have successfully done that. If the people around him
keep his diary well, he will have an opportunity to speak to the world’s
leaders and establish ground for future engagement. He has to impress, if he
impresses, his stature will grow,” said Robertson.
Davos will be the first major global economic conference
that Mnangagwa will attend as
President.
He took over as President in November last year following a
dramatic military intervention that led to the resignation of former president
Robert Mugabe, blamed by many for crippling a once prosperous economy.
Top on Mnangagwa’s agenda has been establishing policies to
rebuild an economy that has declined by over 50 percent since 2000 and
continues to confront headwinds including cash shortages and firm closures.
Several challenges within the economy require his urgent
attention, and his to-do list has been growing by the day as Zimbabweans,
including industrialists, present their problems.
“Both domestic and foreign investment is key for the growth
of the economy,” the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries said in a letter to
the President in December.
“There is need for confidence building measures especially
in the financial sector in order to attract local investors. For foreign
investment, the major cloud hanging is the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act. There is need to urgently bring clarity; and key issues that
investors look at are fairness, the return on investment, and investor
protection,” it said.
And if he fails to resolve them, the problems could
continue to propel the economy down the abyss.
Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector has virtually collapsed and
a poor infrastructure network requires billions of dollars in new investment.
Tourist arrivals have remained subdued due to hostile
policies under his predecessor, while the mainstay agricultural sector remains
undermined by lack of finance and equipment to till vast tracts of farmland
that have been taken over by indigenous Zimbabwe under the controversial
agrarian reforms of 2000.
Hospitals are in distress and schools and universities are
underfunded, while sanitation is deteriorating due to poor funding.
Mnangagwa hopes to leverage on his interactions with the
world’s investment community
and other leaders to build the foundation on which
Zimbabwe would attract capital to reverse the problems that have been
undermining overall socio-economic development.
Founded in 1971 by Schwab, a German economics professor,
the forum has become an annual meeting that includes dinners and over 400 panel
discussion sessions, largely about world social and economic trends.
Officially, it is an academic conference; unofficially it
is a global meeting for the rich and powerful.
The WEF is dominated by the private sector, but also
attracts world leaders who use it as an avenue to hold bilateral discussions.
Financial Gazette
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