Zimbabwe woos Ghanaian investors

Accra, Oct. 8, GNA - Zimbabwe on Wednesday appealed to Ghanaian entrepreneurs to explore investment opportunities in that country. Briefing members of the Accra Chamber of Commerce and Industry at their monthly meeting on investment opportunities in Zimbabwe, Mrs. Pavelyn Tendai Musaka, Zimbabwe Ambassador to Ghana, said the country's industrial sector was in dire need of injection of fresh capital to enable it to meet the competitive global environment. She said opportunities existed in the agriculture, manufacturing, horticulture and tourism sectors and urged Ghanaians to take advantage of them.

While admitting that investors are right to express fear and concern about safety of their investment because of the current political environment, Mrs Musaka gave the assurance that government had in place guarantee to secure investments of foreigners. She said this was the time that Ghanaian investors must make a move, saying any hesitation would be a missed opportunity. Dr. Julius Spatz, Programme Director GTZ, who also spoke on GTZ assistance to SMEs, lauded the economic strides made by Ghana in recent years but said much more needed to be done to make the growth sustainable. He said while the period had also witnessed expansion in industrial productivity, sectoral structures had remained the same and poorly linked.

Cocoa, timber and gold continue to be the dominant exports, contributing the highest to the country's export revenue. There is therefore the need for a shift in structure through export diversification. Dr Spatz said it was in this direction that GTZ launched its programme for sustainable economic development to support government to deliver on the Medium Term Private Sector Strategy, especially in the regions and districts of the country. Under the programme GTZ provides funds to rural banks to enable them to support small and medium scale enterprises. 08 Oct. 08