Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

The MDC led by Advocate Nelson Chamisa held a Thank You Rally in Mkoba, Gweru on Saturday afternoon. Below are pictures of the thousands of people who congregated at the venue: WATCH VIDEO BELOW

 President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government looks to be lining up opposition leader Nelson Chamisa’s uncle Peter to be the fall guy after the Zanu PF leader angrily blasted an unnamed official for allegedly withholding fuel meant for farmers involved in the government’s much-hyped Command Agriculture programme. In an unrestrained tirade, Mnangagwa attacked the “leader of the programme” at a

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s penchant for travelling in state-of-the-art airplanes has come at a huge cost to the taxpayer, thus undermining his government’s ‘austerity for prosperity’ mantra. Since coming to power in November 2017, Mnangagwa has travelled over 25 trips. In nearly 16 months, he has been to countries such as Russia, Rwanda, Belarus, Guinea, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, South

Source: RBZ allays fears on bank balances | Sunday News (local news)

Peter Matika, Senior Reporter
BANK balances for both RTGS dollars and FCA Nostros will remain the same and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will not raid anyone’s foreign currency account, the Governor, Dr John Mangudya has said.

Last year the RBZ advised banks to separate foreign currency accounts and RTGS money. Under the stewardship of former Governor Dr Gideon Gono, the RBZ was accused of raiding foreign currency from exporters’ accounts, but Dr Mangudya has assured account holders that all forms of money were safe in the bank, adding that there would be no changes in bank balances despite the recently announced changes through the monetary policy.

“We have never raided anyone’s nostro account, our records can testify and we will not do so going forward,” he said at a breakfast meeting in Harare to discuss the monetary policy he delivered last week.

The breakfast meeting was attended by Finance and Economic Development Minister Prof Mthuli Ncube and captains of industry.

He said although banks agreed to start trading the RTGS dollars as $2,50 to US$1, going forward the rate will be determined on a daily basis by market forces.

“The bank rate will determine the rate on the market. We will arrange foreign lines of credit since demand will be greater than the supply of foreign currency. We need to cloud seed the market with foreign currency,” he said.

Dr Mangudya added that this would also pose an opportunity for foreign currency traders to set up formal bureau de change companies.

“For the foreign currency dealer this is your opportunity to open formal bureau de changes and trade formally. We only have one Zimbabwe and should work together. The parallel market (street) rate is way too high because there is a risk premium, you can go to jail for 10 years. We delayed presenting the monetary policy because we wanted to analyse all submissions from all sectors of the economy so that we speak to everyone, nothing else. Bulk of money in Zimbabwe is seating on the RTGS platform. We only have $437 million of bond notes,” he said.

Dr Mangudya said the implementation of the bond note was necessitated to formalise the export incentive.

“The percent incentive scheme was a shadow exchange rate. It went on well when inflation was below five percent. When the inflation went beyond 20 percent in October the 1:1 exchange became unsustainable,” said Dr Mangudya.

Economists have said the market has received the measures announced by the central bank in a positive way despite fears people had that the policy was likely to cause tremours on the market.

“This is a positive start, people feared after the announcement that prices would go up and there will be chaos in the market. The market has embraced the changes and even retailers have not increased prices,” said an economist with a banking institution. He said the move also gave the RBZ some air to breathe on monetary matters.

“When we were exclusively using foreign currency, the bank was constrained in controlling money matters because it had no control over money supply. With the RTGS dollars there is some way of negotiating the matter although the ultimate solution lies in introducing our own currency which obviously has to be backed by output.”

The RTGS dollars will also help Government to control its spending. Finance Minister Prof Ncube has already indicated that the Government was now standing on a cash position since it can also harness plastic money. The Government paid its January and February salaries standing on cash position, he added.

Economists say a cash position represents the amount of cash that a company, investment fund or bank has on its books at a specific point in time. The cash position is a sign of financial strength and liquidity.

“Fiscal consolidation measures are already helping to balance the budget. On the other hand, the income from two percent tax (on electronic transfers) will also be used to rejuvenate and improve the new Zimbabwe; building schools, roads and making sure our nurses, doctors and teachers receive the wages they deserve. We can already see that shelves are full and fuel lines have petered out.”

He added that the ministry will undertake a global deal road show in different countries to explain the country’s economic situation in June or July.

“We will be in Frankfurt and Tokyo. We expect to sign deals that will benefit the country’s economic performance.”

The post RBZ allays fears on bank balances appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: 77 percent exhibition space taken at ZITF | Sunday News (Business)

Thandeka Matebesi, Business Reporter
AT least 77 percent of exhibition space has been taken up by exhibitors for this year’s Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, a slight increase from the 71 percent that had been sold at the same time last year.

This year’s exhibition takes place from 23 to 27 April at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre in Bulawayo, under the theme, “Propagating Industrial Growth through Trade and Investment”.

This year’s exhibition is the 60th consecutive edition of the show. ZITF Company marketing and public relations manager Miss Stella Nkomo said bookings were still in progress.

“To date 77 percent of the available space has been taken up by a total of 236 direct exhibitors. This compares favourably with the booking situation at the same time last year, where 71 percent of the available space had been taken up by 206 exhibitors. A total of 49 631 square metres of space has been made available for sale including five exhibition halls, over 120 individual pavilions and over 10 000 sq metres of external or open sites.

“Enquiries and bookings continue to come through on a daily basis and projections are that the show will be successful and well-represented in terms of both local and international participation,” she said.

She also said at least four countries had confirmed their participation in this year’s show.

“Interests on the international front have been high with four countries having confirmed participation namely, Ethiopia, Japan, Malawi and Mozambique,” said Miss Nkomo.

Miss Nkomo said they had already engaged players in the tourism and hospitality industry through their respective bodies to ensure adequate and affordable accommodation for tourists.

“Because of the high level of interest in the show, organisers anticipate an increased demand for accommodation services during ZITF 2019. Consequently, ZITF has already engaged local accommodation operators individually and through apex bodies such as the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority to discuss issues of availability, pricing and customer service.

“The industry has given assurances that it is equal to the task through the hotels, lodges, guest houses and private homes dotted throughout the city. As a value-add to participants at this year’s show, ZITF has retained the service of its strategic partner Ecological Safaris to assist exhibitors in finding suitable accommodation.”

She said her company has also come up with packages as part of their efforts to profile Bulawayo as a preferred business tourism destination.

“Additionally, ZITF is in discussions with local tour operators to come up with tailored tour packages that will provide visitors with a rounded experience of not just the exhibition but of the host city, Bulawayo. This is in line with international trade exhibition trends and is part of ZITF’s greater strategy,” said Miss Nkomo.

The post 77 percent exhibition space taken at ZITF appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.