Zimbabwe touts Beira Corridor as lifeline for beleaguered economy

Mozambique and Zimbabwe are continuing the drive to develop private enterprise along the transport link between Beira and Zimbabwe, similar to the Maputo corridor.
An agreement has now been signed between the
two countries, setting up
the Beira Development Corridor Business Council to promote investment. Although membership will largely come from Mozambique and Zimbabwe, it is hoped that companies from Malawi, Botswana and Zambia will join.
Officially the corridor is seen as complementary to the Maputo scheme, but there is no doubt that eventually it will be seen as a competitor, with companies being lured from South Africa.
At the moment the council is very much at the theoretical stage and an executive committee has still to be formed. The private sector in Zimbabwe is very optimistic about its possibilities, seeing this as something of an escape from the quicksand into which the Zimbabwe economy has sunk.
Mozambique is moving forward, while we are moving back, was how it was put by one Zimbabwe exporter that was involved in the former Beira Corridor Group. There is only one way out of our worsening misery and that is by exporting Ñ not through South Africa but through Beira. In five years time only those Zimbabwe companies that have set up in Mozambique will be able to operate effectively.
A test of the sincerity of the new council will be the
members of the executive committee. If they are independent business leaders, it will be great, but if they are merely toadies of the two governments, we will be in for a hard time, said the exporter.
By Martin Rushmere