eBusiness Weekly
Taurai Mangudhla and Africa Moyo
The much-awaited two-day Zimbabwe Mining Investment Conference 2018, which ran from Tuesday to Wednesday, has come and gone.
The conference started on a high note with opening remarks from the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe chief executive Isaac Kwesu.
The indaba appeared a resounding success, judging by the high turnout, with the almost 300 delegates struggling to find seats in the packed Steward Room of the Meikles Hotel.
Sadly, head count cannot be the only indicator of success for a conference of this magnitude, it’s not a concert.
Although the conference drew a lot of delegates from across the world — thanks to the renewed interest in Zimbabwe since President Emmerson Mnangagwa took oath of office on November 24 last year to end 37 years of former president Robert Mugabe’s rule — the logistics left a lot to be desired.
Since the new political dispensation, we have had a number of conferences that have brought literally no tangible benefit to the country.
Clearly, the organisers of the mining conference, and other conferences lined up for the next few weeks, are keen to make a business out of conferences.
Delegate fees of as much as $750 per delegate charged by coordinators of the ongoing conference, Mining Report, are testimony.
Reports indicated the initial fees was as high as $2 000 per delegate before being slashed, still to a staggering $750.
It is tempting to criticise conferences as mere talk shows, after all, is that not what they are. At the recently concluded mining conference, the programme was packed with speeches.
There were no break-away or business to business sessions which normally allow delegates to come up with their own views on issues under deliberation so that concerned parties take them on board.
You would expect anyone who had recently attended the African Mining Indaba in Cape Town or any of these global conventions to know how to get things right.
Interactions among investors and Government are supposed to foster win-win partnerships; it has more to do with the quality of the engagements and what happens thereafter.
In my view, this was a wasted opportunity to market the country to the many investors who clearly could not fit in that small venue.
Organisers of the mining conference, in their wisdom or lack thereof, chose to invite someone from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) to tell investors why they should list there instead of inviting officials from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) to tell its story.
The lady from JSE of South Africa even had the audacity to insinuate the local bourse was not up to scratch, loud and clear to all.
Delegates want to meet potential investors and representatives of companies they can invest in. Suppliers want to meet miners so they can open dialogue to sell their products.
They want to know what other corporates are doing and what business opportunities there are.
Delegates are also more interested in question and answer sessions where they ask companies that have been operating in Zimbabwe how they are surviving the environment and here Government official give relevant responses.
Investors want to ask Government exactly how they can enter and know who and how to approach them, instead of meaningless lectures.
Perhaps, there was no space for breakaway sessions given that the venue was too small to begin with, but again this reflects logistical shortcomings and organisers lack of foresight.
In terms of the presentations, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Deputy Governor Dr Kupukile Mlambo went on about difficulties in accessing foreign currency, telling investors how it could take forever to get foreign payments through.
One would assume the central bank would use this opportunity to inform the investors about strategies that have been put in place to facilitate foreign payments and efforts being made to improve the country’s foreign currency situation.
On a positive note, the export incentive was a good topic given some companies have received funds which go straight to the bottom line since the scheme was started in 2016.
In fact, at a mining conference, the RBZ should have brought its subsidiary firms such as Aurex and Fidelity Printers and Refiners (FPR) to tell delegates what they do as well as assure them that there was capacity to buy gold and silver.
The platform could even be used to find partners for the diamond and gold value addition projects, such as jewellery manufacturing.
Mining investors need a consistent and conducive policy environment and all Government needs to do is to tell them what they are doing to ensure security of tenure and property rights are respected given events of the past.
