ZimTrade targets Dubai as Middle East gateway

Source: ZimTrade targets Dubai as Middle East gateway | The Herald

Panashe Nyamudeza Business Reporter

ZimTrade is organising a Zimbabwe-Dubai Business Forum to strengthen bilateral trade relations with the United Arab Emirates and open export avenues for local producers into the Middle East.

The forum will be held from February 15 to 17, 2022 on the sidelines of the ongoing Dubai Expo 2020.

The event is expected to unlock Zimbabwe’s access to the lucrative Dubai market and act as the gateway to the larger Middle East market.

This will also profile investment opportunities as the Southern African country steps up its campaign to attract top global companies to invest in various sectors of the economy.

More than 30 companies from the local industry are expected to participate in the event and will engage with potential buyers in the United Arab Emirates.

“Apart from engaging buyers in Dubai, participating companies will also engage with visitors to the Dubai Expo 2020 that has recorded more than five million visitors to date since it started in October 2020,” said ZimTrade in a press statement.

Participating companies from Zimbabwe will be drawn from sectors such as horticulture (including avocados, mangoes, macadamia nuts, vegetables, chilies, sweet corn, peas, tomatoes, sweet potatoes), processed foods and beverages, meat and meat products, leather and leather products, clothing and textiles, and essential oils.

Other sectors that will be represented include manufactured tobacco, building and construction, arts and crafts, mining, information and communication technologies, agricultural inputs and implements, and travel and tourism.

ZimTrade chief executive officer, Allan Majuru, said the major objective of the business forum was to improve the visibility of Zimbabwean products in Dubai, in line with Zimbabwe’s Open for Business agenda currently fronted by the Second Republic.

“The objective driving the Business Forum is to improve exports of Zimbabwe’s products as service to Dubai, which is currently warming up to local products such as horticultural produce,” he said.

He said given the economic diplomacy agenda being implemented by the Government, there was room to turn the good political relationship that exists between Zimbabwe and Dubai into an export business that favours local industries.

The economic diplomacy agenda, led by President Mnangagwa’s admin, shows that the world is warming up to Zimbabwean products as the country continues to record positive export growth.

Guided by the slogan “Zimbabwe is Open for Business”, the Government is working closely with the private sector to rebuild key productive sectors as part of the broader economic transformation agenda which is anchored on the rolling out of reforms aimed at increasing the ease of doing business and encouraging both domestic and foreign direct investment.

The creation of export-oriented growth and the substitution of imports are at the centre of these efforts, which are expected to culminate in an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.