By Manish Chand, IANS,
Harare : Zimbabwe is on the road to recovery and is looking at the “success story” of India as it rebuilds its sanctions-scarred economy, says Deputy Prime Minister Arthur G.O. Mutambara, the rocket scientist-turned-politician who is at the forefront of re-branding his country globally.
Mutambara, a Rhodes scholar who did a masters in electrical engineering/computer engineering at Oxford University and later worked on robotics at NASA as a research scientist, is no run-of-the-mill politician.
Having worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, he knows the power of branding in today’s marketing-driven world and makes an eloquent case for re-positioning his country that had become a byword for hyper inflation and bloody power play in Africa till a few months ago.
“We are trying to re-brand our country and build a competitive identity for Zimbabwe in which all the stakeholders have a sense of ownership,” Mutambara told this visiting IANS correspondent in an interview in his book-lined office at the stately Samora Machel Avenue.
“Branding is not about making slogans. It’s about doing, policy and leadership,” he said, symbolising a new can-do mood in a country where a kilo of tomatoes cost millions of Zimbabwean dollars a few months ago and people had to go shopping for food to neighbouring South Africa.
Instead he points at a surge of enthusiasm among foreign investors last week when Harare hosted the Sanganai World Travel and Tourism Africa Fair that brought together over 450 exhibitors and more than 1,000 buyers keen to get a share of tourist dollars in Zimbabwe — famous for its walk-with-the-lions wild game parks and the stunning Victoria Falls.
His optimism is infectious. “We have dollarised our economy. The markets are well-stocked. There is some degree of economic stability. We are now grappling with growth and development. We are making progress in the constitution. We are on the road to recovery.”
In Zimbabwe’s journey of revival and rebirth, Mutambara, who taught robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sees India as an indispensable partner and a success story that inspires and motivates. “The success of India is inspirational and motivational. It’s a good story, it’s a message of hope. India is a rising economic and political power,” he said.
“We are trying to learn from India and the India miracle story. What are the lessons of transformation from poverty to prosperity?” he said. Mutambara outlined the new unity government’s strategy of deepening partnership with India that included scaling up trade, investment, tourism and people-to-people contacts.
“In the arena of global geopolitics, we will expand our cooperation with multilateral institutions,” he added.
The 42-year-old politician, who played a crucial role in the formation of the unity government that took charge in February, sees the renewed competition among major and emerging powers for Africa’s resources in a realistic manner. “The more diverse sources of FDI, the better it is for Africa.”
Mutambara looks at China’s growing presence in Zimbabwe and in Africa — a target of polemics by some western powers which accuse Beijing of behaving like a neo-colonial power — as a potentially win-win situation, but makes a case for redefining the relationship. “We don’t want commodity-based relationship, but a relationship based on value addition,” he said.
Mutambara is robustly optimistic about the future of Zimbabwe and the bigger role of Africa on the global stage. “The future of Zimbabwe is bright. There is a paradigm shift from the nation to the region and to the continent. The way to go is regional integration,” he said.
(Manish Chand can be contacted at [email protected])