Harare - A British trade team, the first to set foot in Harare in the last 20 years, is investigating whether UK investors should return to Zimbabwe.
With much of Zimbabwe’s infrastructure in poor shape, the five-man British team says it is mostly asking questions during its three-day visit.
This is the latest initiative by both countries to end the tumultuous political stand-off between Harare and Whitehall which began with land invasions in 2000.
“This is marking the first step in the normalisation of relations,” new British ambassador to Zimbabwe, Catriona Laing, said.
She said the mission of experts, rather than businessmen, would investigate doing business in Zimbabwe.
“The promised clarification of the indigenisation policy is welcome, which, if handled well, could have a major impact,” she said.
Zimbabwe’s “indigenisation” policy, introduced in 2009, seeks to force foreign and white Zimbabwean-owned business to sell at least 51 percent of their businesses to black Zimbabweans.
Daily News Foreign Service