Ministry of Industry and Commerce has a mammoth task to spur the revival of the economy.  The immediate task is to ensure the coming back into the stream of the manufacturing sector to enhance production.

A crippling Rand flight from the Zimbabwean economy arising from distortions in the exchange rate regime, and growing political and economic uncertainty worsening the country risk index and low foreign direct investment and development aid inflows has made doing business in Zimbabwe using the South African Rand very expensive as opposed to doing business in US dollars.

Industry has reiterated its plea for the country to adopt the South African Rand to hedge against imported commodity price shocks, which it attributed to appreciation in the value of the US Dollar. The call comes in the wake of a 10 percent increase in the price of foodstuffs and a 3 percent surge in the cost of living partly blamed on movements in prices of imports after the greenback appreciated.

Currently, there is an avalanche of activities in Zimbabwe related to either attraction of new investment or discouraging capital flight (both referred to as investment attraction hereafter).

Year-on-year inflation rose by 2.9 percentage points on the December rate of -7.7% to -4.8% in January, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) said. From January to December 2009, month-on-month inflation had been oscillating between -3.1% and 1 percent after government dollarized the economy.

The Republic of Zimbabwe is an independent country in Southern Africa, well endowed with mineral, agricultural and other resources which have created opportunities for the growth of resource-based industrial activities.