World investors look to Zimbabwe

Infrastructure stakeholders from around the world are showing keen interest in Zimbabwe as a new spirit of optimism takes root in the country. South African business, with its tendency to ‘wait and see’, could miss the boat in terms of opportunities in Zimbabwe, while international investors flock to Zimbabwe to explore new business potential there. This is according to Duncan Bonnett, Director Strategy & Business Development at research and consulting specialists Africa House, who has led two fact-finding and business development delegations to Zimbabwe in recent months. “The prevailing spirit in Zimbabwe has changed dramatically over the past years,” says Bonnett. “Zimbabwe’s public and private sectors are more positive than they have been in possibly 15 years, but with a sense of realism. Significant infrastructure and industrial revitalisation projects are planned, but there are still certain challenges in the way of realising them.” As managers of the pan-African VIP programme for POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa 2018, Bonnet says Zimbabwe presents significant opportunities for South African power businesses. Power is a key factor underpinning Zimbabwe’s aims to restart its manufacturing sector and boost economic growth, Bonnett notes. “The country is focused on rehabilitation, upgrading and expansion.” Manufacturing was once a key sector of the economy and the basic manufacturing infrastructure still exists in many cases. However, it needs investment, modernisation and reliable power to get up and running again. “Zimbabwe currently has a power shortfall of around 250mW or 14%, but as new mining and industrial projects roll out, this shortfall will become more pronounced. To address this, there are new mega hydro and coal-fired projects on the table; but also a number of smaller power projects.” One of these, he notes, is a plan to link new smaller scale hydro power production with enhanced irrigation projects around the country. A number of renewable and solar projects are also planned, while even at a municipal level, authorities are looking to projects such as solar powered street lights. “There are many infrastructure and power business opportunities in Zimbabwe, but it needs to be understood that if companies wait until after the elections to start investigating the opportunities, they may be too late,” says Bonnett. During his recent fact-finding visits, Bonnett was told that delegations had been flying in to Zimbabwe from across the world to investigate opportunities. “There are reports that delegations have visited from the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Turkey, Japan, Korea, China and India, with a view to either making their first inroads into the country or expanding their existing business there.” Challenges remain in doing business in Zimbabwe, but with its educated workforce and skilled diaspora, along with the new will to revitalise the economy, Zimbabwe presents strong growth potential. “The danger for South African business is their tendency to wait too long before moving on opportunity. Now is really the time to be investigating opportunities in Zimbabwe,” Bonnett says. Business partnership opportunities and new pan-African projects will come under the spotlight at Africa’s premier power sector conference and exhibition, POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa, in Johannesburg from 17 – 19 July this year. Up to 80 pan-African power-sector VIPs will fly to South Africa for POWER-GEN & DistribuTECH Africa, where they will participate in B2B matchmaking and business meeting programme throughout the three days of the event. Themed ‘Powering up a continent’, this annual event brings together up to 3,000 key industry stakeholders from across Africa and abroad for three days of high-level debate and analysis. POWER-GEN and DistribuTECH Africa, attract a broad range of delegates, including regional electricity distribution companies, power producers, utilities, oil and gas companies, energy and engineering consultants, government and regulators, environmental agencies, development agencies and investors. In over 30 conference sessions across several focused tracks, POWER-GEN and DistribuTECH Africa will present new research, trends analysis, case studies, innovations and solutions for the power generation and distribution sectors in Africa. To book your booth or to register as a visitor or conference delegate visit www.powergenafrica.com For more information, go to http://www.powergenafrica.com/index.html Follow the latest developments here: www.facebook.com/POWERGENAFRICA and twitter.com/PGAFRICA

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