Posted to the web: 24/03/2009 23:36:05
PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai arrived back home at noon Tuesday after a brief compassionate leave following the death of his wife in a road crash on March 6.
Tsvangirai and his family spent a week in South Africa’s port city of Durban as guests of the South African government.
The Prime Minister is set to begin work on Thursday with two major engagements. He will officially open a two day conference to map strategies for reviving the country’s tourism industry before chairing a Council of Ministers meeting.
Tsvangirai arrived home as prices started to fall after years of devastating inflation that left the national currency nearly worthless - a rare piece of good news for an economy that remains a shambles.
Prices of goods bought in U.S. dollars - Zimbabwe's new official currency - declined by 3 percent since January, the state statistical office said Tuesday.
Until the Zimbabwe dollar became virtually obsolete in recent weeks, Zimbabwe's last official inflation rate in the local currency was given as 231 million percent in August, by far the highest in the world.
Moffat Nyoni, head of the Central Statistical Office, said items priced at an average of $100 (euro73) in January cost $97 (euro71) this month.
No official annual U.S. dollar inflation figure was calculated, Nyoni told reporters. And the situation is complex, because dollars are not readily available. But some Zimbabweans get money from relatives or friends working abroad, and the government recently began paying civil servants in dollar vouchers.
Tsvangirai is expected to send a bullish message to the world that Zimbabwe is open for business and tourists at the opening of the tourism conference in Harare which will run under the theme "Deepening Partnerships for the Revival of the Tourism Economy."
The government announced a short term economic revival strategy called STERP last week. It identifies tourism as a key sector.
Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi said: "This conference seeks to realign stakeholders in the tourism industry to the STERP. Tourism is expected to provide a soft landing for the new economic blueprint.
"The industry needs significant investment. I believe that tourism and its minister is the public relations face of the country. The most attractive product we have is inclusivity and celebrating diversity.
"The country’s image has been under a barrage of cyberspace attack through negative publicity which includes travel warnings, yet we have very peaceful and co-existent destinations.”
Under STERP high-level teams will be dispatched to different countries to reflect a positive image and potential of the country, as well as removing the country risk perceptions entrenched in source markets and consequently lobby for the removal of travel warnings.
Zimbabwe is also keen to capitalise on next year’s Fifa World Cup – and Tsvangirai will emphasise the need for Zimbabwean companies to intensify programmes to promote soccer tourism
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