Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
A MALAYSIAN delegation is expected in the country on Friday for a week-long tour of local tourist attractions as a way of marketing Zimbabwe.

The 35-member group comprises pensioners from the Asian country who are seeking to bask under the African sun with Zimbabwe as their first choice.

A business mogul from that country, Hassam Ali who is president of ZimMal Holdings Private Limited, a business initiative that has done capital projects in Zimbabwe, would lead the delegation.

Ali was in Zimbabwe in 2001 when he met President Mugabe.  He was part of a delegation that witnessed the signing of an agreement between President Mugabe and his Malaysian counterpart on funding for the long overdue Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP).

A total of Z$33 billion (then $600 million) was pledged for the first phase of the project.

Ali’s ZimMal company is the one that built a section of 5,000 Cowdray Park’s houses between 1997 and 2000 after the Bulawayo City Council granted him 50,000 housing units to build but managed 5,000.

Authorities would be interested in making follow ups on these pledges. Speaking through a local organiser Moses Munetsi, Ali said if it was not for hyperinflation more could have been done for the country.

“If not for hyperinflation that was in the country, we could have built more houses. ZimMal is still in existence but as for the projects I can only speak when I arrive there,” he said.

Ali said Malaysians were generally sceptical about visiting Zimbabwe because of negative publicity from western media.

“Many Malaysians want to visit Zimbabwe but are dissuaded by lack of information and negative publicity by Western media. I’ve told them how beautiful Zimbabwe is and I believe that if this is handled well Zimbabwe can get more visitors from our country,” said Ali.

He said his organisation was geared to bringing groups of Malaysian tourists four times a year.

Munetsi said the delegation will arrive on Friday afternoon in Victoria Falls.

“They’ll arrive on Friday in Victoria Falls and spend the night here. On Saturday they’ll go for a morning cruise and then tour the Rainforest before leaving for Hwange National Park,” he said.

Ali and his delegation will proceed to Bulawayo on Saturday where they will sleep over before visiting Matopos National Park on Sunday.

On Monday the delegation will travel to Harare where it will spend two days before flying out on October 21. In between they will meet authorities and in Victoria Falls they will be welcomed by Mayor Councillor Sifiso Mpofu.

Zimbabwe is on a drive to revive its tourism sector by attracting visitors from different countries as well as lure investors at the same time.

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