Government spokesperson Mr Nick Mangwana, who is also the Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, justified President Mnangagwa’s visit to Europe next week.
Mnangagwa will visit Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan before proceeding to Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum. Some section of Zimbabweans have criticised that the countries Mnangagwa wants to visit are not “big enough” or would be compared to second-tier European football. Said Mangwana:
I think what we are dealing with here is what some may call ‘diplomatic snobbery’. I presume you are not referring to Russia. She is part of the G8 economies of this world. It is miles a very big country by any measure one may choose. Let’s talk of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. You may recall we had two high-level visits from the Republic of Belarus in February and September 2018. Belarus has a lot of strengths which Zimbabwe is leveraging. Let’s talk about Azerbaijan: This is a country with the very large sovereign wealth fund and has shown interest in having Africa as its investment destination. If something good has to happen in Africa then let it be in Zimbabwe. That’s why the President says that ‘Zimbabwe is Open for Business’. You are not going to start being snooty when it comes to trade and investment. It is this same kind of thinking that explains why President Mnangagwa is going to visit other countries in the same region like Kazakhstan. This is a country from which Zimbabwe can learn a lot. There are also trade opportunities with Zimbabwe potentially exporting fruit, coffee, tea and tobacco for the benefit of our economy. Zimbabwe has to benefit from its mineral wealth and, surely, countries which have already been there like Kazakhstan can impart a lot of knowledge through skills sharing and transfer with Zimbabwe.
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More: Herald
Thats a good idea to open Zimbabwe for business. The problem is no investor will want to come and invest in a country that has very corrupt citizens like zimbabwe. I think the government should deal with corruption open and the world should notice an improvement on trying to wipe corruption. Unfortunately that is not happening as, so far all the high profile corrupt people are still in their positions. We need to see the whole lot gone. Thanks anyway Mnangagwa for trying. But more is needed to be done. I think you can hire a proper panel of corrupt free people eg, diasporans are the best people to hire in order to wipe corruption. Be really president…