Message from Ambassadors

Opportunities for
Investment in Zimbabwe
Stewart NYAKOTYO
Ambassador of the Republic of Zimbabwe to Japan
Stewart Nyakotyo assumed duty in Japan in January 2023. He is a career diplomat and lawyer with experience spanning 28
years. Before coming to Japan, he was the Director and Legal Adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
at Headquarters in Harare. Prior to his appointment as Legal Adviser, he had served as Deputy Ambassador / MinisterCounsellor at the Embassy of Zimbabwe to Brazil. His first deployment abroad was as a Counsellor at the Embassy ofZimbabwe in Belgium and Permanent Mission to EU.

Open for Business
The Republic of Zimbabwe, a country located in Southern
Africa, stands out as an enticing investment hub, thanks
to its abundant resources and skilled workforce. With adiversified economy, the country offers a wide range ofopportunities for the interconnected growth in the various
sectors, including tourism, mining, agriculture, education,transportation, infrastructure development, manufacturing
and information and communication technology.
Under the leadership of the President His Excellency
Dr. E.D. Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe has declared itself“Open for Business”, signaling a welcoming environment
for genuine and capable investors from around the world.
This mantra paved the way for fruitful business ventures
within Zimbabwe and collaborations with international
partners, which has resulted in significant FDI inflows.
Since 2017, the government has wasted no time in
implementing a series of reforms under a New
Dispensation, which has reshaped the country’s narrativeand economic trajectory. The reforms were carried out
through a comprehensive two-year Transitional
Stabilization Programme (TSP) spanning from 2018 to2020. Additionally, two successive five year economic
blueprints, namely the National Development Strategy(NDS1 and NDS2), were introduced to guide thecountry’s development efforts from 2021-2025 and 2026
to 2030 respectively.
The reform agenda has encompassed several key
areas, including engagement and re-engagement with
the international community, fiscal and monetaryreforms, legislative reforms, corporate governance, zerotolerance for corruption and investment reforms. These

measures were implemented to foster transparency,
accountability and efficiency across various sectors of
the economy, paving the way for sustainable growth anddevelopment.
To improve the ease of doing business, thegovernment formed the Zimbabwe Investment andDevelopment Agency (ZIDA) in 2020, a one-stop-shop
to promote and facilitate both domestic and foreign
investment in Zimbabwe. Incentives to attract FDI
include tax breaks for new investment by foreign anddomestic companies, and making capital expenditureon new factories, machinery, and improvements fully
tax deductible.

Agricultural Sector
Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy and it
provides vertical and horizontal linkages to othereconomic sectors. It is also a source of the much-neededagro-based raw materials. The sector contributes 15%
to GDP, 30% to export earnings and supplies 60% of
industrial raw materials. Opportunities for investment
exist in contract farming, farm mechanization
programmes, irrigation rehabilitation and development,
meat processing, fruit juice making, cotton lint
processing, timber, tobacco farming and processing,horticulture and flower production, and agro-processing/value addition in all these sub-sectors.

Mining Sector
Zimbabwe has an endowment of over 40 different
minerals, including gold, platinum, diamonds, lithium,chrome, coal, nickel and granite, most of which have2023.733

not yet been exploited to the full potential. Zimbabwe
has the second largest known deposits of platinum in theworld after South Africa and its coal deposits are
estimated at 26 billion tonnes. The country has thelargest known reserves of lithium and coal-bed methane
gas in Sub-Saharan Africa and has been buoyed by therecent confirmation of oil deposits, with a potential
output of 1.2 billion barrels and helium gas reserves,both discovered in the Zambezi valley.
The mining sector is strategic to Zimbabwe’s
national economy and is the centerpiece to economic
turnaround and sustainable development. It remains asignificant pillar of growth and recovery of Zimbabwe’s
economy and a major contributor to GDP, infrastructuredevelopment and directly employs over 45,000 people.
Opportunities for investment exist in prospecting
and establishment of new mines, resuscitating closed
mines, refining and beneficiation of the minerals,
support services such as supplies of mining equipment
and consumables.

Manufacturing SectorZimbabwe has a diversified manufacturing industry
base with subsectors in clothing and textiles, leather andleather products, food processing, furniture,pharmaceuticals, paper and plastics, chemicals, metals
and electrical and the motor industry, among others.
The sector has been affected by the lack of long-term
financing and obsolete technology. Investment
opportunities exist in resuscitation of existing industries,
as well as opening new facilities. There are great
opportunities in cotton ginning, spinning, weaving,clothing and knitted products; tobacco processing; saw
milling, production of furniture and newsprint.

Infrastructure Sector
The provision of good infrastructure is a prerequisite forachieving economic growth and development and also forenabling other sectors of the economy to thrive. Zimbabwe
welcomes individual investors or Public Private
Partnerships (PPPs). Investment potential exist in theexpansion and modernization of the existing, as well as
the construction of new infrastructure such as modern
highways and associated tollgates linking key cities,
power generation, dam construction, water and sewer
reticulation, budget hotel chains in the tourism industry,rehabilitation of airports and installation of requisite
equipment, rehabilitation of the railway network, signaling
and telecommunication system, urban water, agricultural
infrastructure including irrigation schemes, industrial
parks and factory shells, housing and office buildings,
power generation through Independent Power Producers(IPPs) and PPP.
Specific investment opportunities exist in various
projects including, Gokwe North Thermal Power
Station, Gwayi Thermal Power Station, Western Area
Power Plant, Lupane Coal Bed Methane, Mini Hydro
Power Stations, Transmission and Distribution
Networks and Solar Energy.

Security of Investments
Government is committed to providing security to all
investments and this is rooted in the country’s constitution.
Security of investments is guaranteed by legislation, butmore importantly, Zimbabwe has signed up to a number ofinvestment protection agreements such as the International
Convention on Settlement of Disputes (ICSID), New York
Convention on the Settlement of Disputes, United Nations
Convention on International Trade Law and several
Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs).

Tourism Sector
The country is regarded as one of the best travel
destinations in the world with abundant wildlife and aperfect climate. Places of interest include the Victoria
Falls (one of the Seven Wonders of the World and a
UNESCO World Heritage site), Hwange National Park,
Gonarezhou National Park, Eastern Highlands, Great
Zimbabwe monuments and Kariba. Investment
opportunities exist in the development of tourism
infrastructure in various resort towns such as constructionof new hotels and international convention centers,
conference facilities, hunting safaris and tour operations,gaming and production of animal documentaries.
342023.7

The investment opportunities offered by Zimbabwe arenumerous and the time to invest in the country is now!
お問い合わせJOI 事業企画部
E-mail: bd@joi.or.jp

駐日ジンバブエ共和国大使館
E-mail：zimtokyo@chive.ocn.ne.jp

Zimbabwe Investment and Development
Agency (ZIDA)
Email：info@zidainvest.com
URL：https://zidainvest.com