Search Results for: Zimbabwe

­­THE ZIMBABWE government has put in place a raft of measures to resuscitate the country’s weak textile industry, but players in the sector say lack of consultation, bureaucracy and the general economic hardship threaten full recovery.

The southern African country’s textile industry is operating between 30%-35% of its full capacity, and President Robert Mugabe’s government is keen to turnaround this key industry’s fortunes.…

THE ANCIENT Celts has a saying: “To the brave belong all things.” And in business, this remains true. Companies prepared to take big risks, can reap big spoils. But they can also stumble into disaster. Such calculations are always made when foreign companies consider trading or investing in so-called ‘failed states’ or those at risk of failure.…

THE MODERATION of growth across sub-Saharan Africa last year to 1.5%, (according to the World Bank), from an average 5-7% per annum in the previous 10 years, may signal that the region needs to firm up its financial professions and institutions to help preserve its recent economic gains.…

ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe has opened an upgraded Victoria Falls International Airport, built by development projects group China Jiangsu International, backed by a USD150 million loan from the Export-Import Bank of China. The renovated airport can now handle 1.5 million passengers annually, with a new international terminal building, 4 km runway, control tower, fire station, associated road networks, and a refurbished domestic terminal plus extended aircraft parking areas.…

Japan’s automobile manufacturers are increasingly looking to set up plants in – or, at least, very close to – their target markets, and paint companies with expertise in the auto coatings sector are following their lead.

“In 2015, the overall Japanese paints and varnishes market recorded 0.3 per cent growth, with producers struggling to remain competitive because production in Japan is pricier due to environmental requirements and higher labour costs,” said Andrius Balsys, a research analyst who monitors the paints sector for London-based market researcher, Euromonitor International.…

Paint and varnish manufacturers in Japan experienced a disappointing 2015, with sluggish purchasing from the construction and automotive sectors translating into meagre 0.3% growth over the fiscal year. Analysts predict that growth will pick up in the short term, in part as a result of a spike in demand from the construction sector ahead of Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games – although industry players are concerned about the longer-term outlook for the sector.…

China pharmaceutical industry investors want to help sub-Saharan African countries meet growing domestic demand for medicine in return for tax breaks and private-public partnership initiatives. But there are difficulties – including product quality and standards issues that impede the flow of Chinese Yuan into African pharma production.…

The scale of Zimbabwe’s reforestation programmes needs to vastly increase if they are going to counter the decimation of the country’s forests by the tobacco industry, a leading agricultural expert has warned.
Harare-based agriculture consultant Charles Taffs believes that if the current rate of deforestation continues without significant intervention, in less than seven years the 80,000 small-scale tobacco producers who supply the industry will have no wood left to burn for the leaf curing process.…

State -owned universities in Zimbabwe have started gearing for full commercialisation of their activities after the cash-strapped government warned it could cut its salary obligations to state higher education institutions by 50% in the near future.
Although there has been no official policy pronouncement from the Zanu-PF government, University World News has been told that its higher and tertiary education minister Oppah Muchinguri has advised vice chancellors from all state universities to start focusing on commercial projects.…

The Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), Moscow’s financial intelligence unit (FIU), has singled out individual and commercial customers using Russian banks from 41 countries for special transactions reports. Among these countries on the “blacklist” are the U.S., Canada, the European Union (28 states), Australia, Norway, Iran, Syria, Sudan, New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico Switzerland, North Korea and Zimbabwe.…