NEW President Emmerson Mnangagwa says key choices will have to be made to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to tackle high levels of unemployment.
BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA
At his inauguration as the second executive President of Zimbabwe in Harare on Friday, Mnangagwa said his administration’s economic-led recovery plan would be based on investment.
“Our economic policy will be predicated on our agriculture, command agriculture which is the mainstay and creating conditions for an investment-led economic recovery that puts a premium on job, job, job creation. Key choices will have to be made to attract foreign direct investment to tackle high levels of unemployment, while transforming our economy,” he said.
He said skilled Zimbabweans, who had left the country for greener pastures, needed to come back to help resuscitate the economy and added that the fiscal and social infrastructure must be repaired.
His administration, Mnangagwa said, would embrace a system of economic organisation and management that incorporated “elements of the market economy in which enterprises are allowed, encouraged and protected”.
“We welcome mutually gainful partnerships with international investors whose presence in our midst must be valued and secured. The bottom line is an economy that is back on its feet, in only that way can we recover this economy, create jobs for our youths and reduce poverty for all our people who must witness real positive changes in our lives,” he said.
Mnangagwa said government would ensure relaxation of export procedures while vigorously ensuring the reduction of all costs associated with the conduct of international trade.
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“The establishment of economic zones will be accelerated in order to attract investment and increase exports,” he said.
He warned parastatals against complacency saying the era of business as usual approach was over.
Mnangagwa said domestic and international debt obligations would be serviced to reduce the high country risk perception, among existing and prospective investors.
