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Zimbabwe re-engages the European Union

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ZIMBABWE will today hold a one-day re-engagement conference with representatives from the European Union (EU),

ZIMBABWE will today hold a one-day re-engagement conference with representatives from the European Union (EU), an official has said.

By Business Reporter

Business Council of Zimbabwe president Hlanganiso Matangaidze confirmed the development yesterday.

“We will have a conference tomorrow (today) on Europe-Zimbabwe engagement and we will talk about sanctions. We want business and the media to give their views on the issue,” Matangaidze said.

The conference will bring together civic society, farmer organisations and government officials. The EU delegation is expected to meet President Robert Mugabe in the evening for a briefing.

The meeting comes barely a month after a 15-member delegation from different sectors of the economy visited Europe to scout for foreign direct investment. The EU imposed targeted sanctions against Mugabe and other government and Zanu PF officials a decade ago, and has been lifting the embargo in tranches over the past five years.

Next week, the EU will make a decision on the sanctions that are affecting Zimbabwe.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Charles Msipa in January this year said the situation in the country was very tough due to reduced demand on the domestic market owing to liquidity problems.

Msipa said in the first six months of this year, the situation was unlikely to change as nothing much had changed since the last quarter of 2013 where consumers had low disposable incomes.

Msipa, however, said the continued use of the multicurrency system would build confidence and the resumption of the lender of last resort function by the central bank would enable banks to increase lending to the manufacturing sector.