President Mnangagwa has acknowledged that his government took the country backwards by twenty years in terms of development compared to other countries.

Addressing a bumper crowd at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) Sports Grounds on Tuesday, President Mnangagwa said it was Government’s goal to restore the country’s lost economic glory.

“The 20 years that we lost while other nations were developing, we would want to leapfrog and jump to catch up with other nations in the region and other African countries and beyond.

“Zimbabwe must leapfrog and catch up with the rest of the developing countries and to do so we agreed as Government we shall engage and re-engage.”

President Mnangagwa said the re-engagement policy would see Zimbabwe work to restore relationships with its erstwhile friends across the world.

“Those who had severed relationships with us are being asked to restore these, but those who are not interested will not be forced to review these relations,” he said.

He said Zimbabwe had opened its doors to the outside world.

“Zimbabwe is open for business, for you friends to come, all of you to come. Those who do not want, we cannot force friendship upon those who do not want.

“But we are happy that across the board, across the entire world, Zimbabwe is being received, Zimbabwe is being respected, Zimbabwe is being accepted with the policies that we have; that let us relate, let us re-engage, let us be a member of the international community.”

President Mnangagwa said the business community had acknowledged that there could be no development without agriculture, mining and infrastructure development.

“For the months that we have been in the new dispensation, you can see that the situation has changed. The roads are being maintained and constructed.

“Even in Harare where there were potholes, everywhere you go you will see workers maintaining the roads while in the rural areas the DDF and council are working on the roads and building bridges,” he said.