Zimbabwe Economic News: Tobacco Production, Varenko eyes Cairns, Elephant Hills gets a facelift

The golden leaf is expected to earn the country over $1 bln this year benefiting from thousands of small-scale farmers. ?

Last year tobacco exports raked in nearly $800 mln. - Daily News on Sunday, May 26

Russian tycoon eyes Cairns

Nikolay Varenko, the Russian billionaire angling to acquire Cairns Holdings, is expected in Harare next week for talks with the Government on the possibility of buying the entire stake in the ZSE-listed firm.

The Russian tycoon, who initially had his sights on the Reserve Bank's 67% stake in Cairns, flies into Harare on Thursday for a meeting with Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere.

If the discussions with are fruitful, Varenko could inject between $20 mln and $30 mln into the cash-strapped firm - Herald, Monday May 27

Elephant Hills Hotel gets facelift

Hospitality group African Sun Limited has started a soft refurbishment exercise at the Elephant Hills Hotel in Victoria Falls, the venue of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation General Assembly.

African Sun head of sales and marketing Alana Chinhara said the group would spend at least $1.2 mln on the refurbishment which involves furnishing of the rooms and would be completed before the UNWTO General Assembly in August this year - Herald, Monday May 27

Zim ranked among the top 10 economic performers in Africa

Zimbabwe is now ranked among the top 10 economic performers on the continent, according to the Economic Report for Africa. The majority of these better performing countries are heavily dependent on oil or minerals or both.

Secretary for Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Desire Sibanda said Zimbabwe used to be rated as one of the poor economic performers but favourable economic policy have seen a shift in the performance of the country's economy - Herald, Monday May 27

Tongaat rakes R630 mln from Zim operations

South African sugar producer Tongaat Hulett says its Zimbabwe-based operations contributed a total of R630 mln to the group's profits in the year to March 31 2013 compared with R621 mln recorded in prior year - Daily News, Monday May 27

Mineral resources should revive ailing economy

Zimbabwe is failing to take advantage of the current global demand for mineral resources whose earnings have the potential to revive its ailing economy, World Bank country economist, Seedwell Hove has said. Hove said Zimbabwe was failing to fully exploit its resources that are in abundance, in order to revive its struggling economy - Standard, Sunday May 26