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Ambassador Mary Mubi

Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Business Reporter
THE Government has embarked on a global campaign targeting Zimbabweans in the diaspora and foreign investors as part of the national branding exercise.

Speaking during the International Business Conference at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Grounds in Bulawayo yesterday, Senior Principal Director and Head of Public Affairs in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Ambassador Mary Mubi, said the national branding exercise was aimed at improving the country’s image, promoting trade and investment as well as attracting visitors.

“In our national branding matrix, we are going to have a global campaign and our diasporans have been reaching out and they really want to be part of the national branding exercise. We are actually saying, brand Zimbabwe is about embracing our friends and attributes as a people who are peace loving and highly educated and our man-made and God given endowments, vibrant arts and culture, which communicate coherently to the outside world,” she said.

Amb Mubi said brand Zimbabwe will be rooted in people’s shared understanding of what distinguishes Zimbabweans from other countries.

“When we talk about coherence there has to be coherence between the Government, the private sector and other players so that we are communicating the same message,” she said.

Amb Mubi said the business sector and all other organisations should play their part in the brand Zimbabwe initiative.

“Our brand Zimbabwe initiative is driven by three pillars, which are visit, trade and invest. At the national level, we have three committees made up of visit, trade and invest and some are chaired by the private sector with Government input,” she said.

The OPC has been coordinating information from the provincial and national committees in order to come up with communication products for different audiences.

Amb Mubi said the captured information will form the basis for the national campaign, which will in turn feed into the global and the Diaspora campaign.

“All efforts of the branding are geared at boosting the branding mantra put forward by His Excellency, President Emmerson Mnangagwa that is Zimbabwe is open for business,” she said.

ZITF has been the launch pad for starting a national conversation on brand Zimbabwe in line with President Mnangagwa’s Zimbabwe is open for business mantra.

“Zimbabwe is open for business is a call by the President to all our investors, traders, business entities, both local and international as well as all citizens to find their place in this re-engagement and mobilisation campaign and signalises Government efforts to reform the business environment for both local and foreign investors because the strength of our branding exercise is our people and we need to energise our people through the reform process,” she said.

Amb Mubi said the “Zimbabwe is Open for Business” mantra seeks to enhance business relationships, restore hope for a better future for the citizens, restore investor confidence and thus facilitate the growth of our economy and jobs.

She said as part of the national branding exercise cyber space, the OPC was ensuring that the Government websites reflect that Zimbabwe is open for business.

“To that effect the websites have been unveiled to resolve policy issues and challenges faced by Government ministries and departments during the development and management of their websites. The Government will also ensure that all its websites reflect originality and conform consistently to agreed standards that uplift the Zimbabwe brand in the cyber space,” she said.

The national branding seeks to create an opportunity for Zimbabweans to rediscover themselves and for the private and public sector companies to benchmark their company activities.

“In this regard let me say that it is no longer sufficient in the global market space even if you had an excellence product simply to talk about your product but you now need to talk about your sustainable processes, use of energy, labour practices as part of your brand. As a country we need to look at the changing desires in our market place. In Europe there is a lot of interest in organic material. Branding our cotton as organic cotton immediately you have a mark up in the price of our cotton and we are a country that can produce organic products,” she said.

@mashnets