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Martin Kadzere Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Investment Authority has urged investors to look beyond Zimbabwe’s previous political and economic challenges by starting businesses in the country. Zimbabwe went through a decade of recession between 1999 and 2008, but the introduction of the multi-currency system in 2009 and the formation of the coalition Government halted consecutive years of gross domestic product contraction.
The economy has recorded recovery growth since 2009 but the growth started decelerating in 2011, reflecting a fragile recovery owing largely to inherent political and economic uncertainty due to the discord in the coalition Government.
“As the elections are now over and a Government is in place for the next five years, we want to urge all investors who might have been sitting on the fence for some time, to now move in and explore the abundant investment opportunities across all sectors of the economy,” ZIA chairman Mr Nigel Chanakira said.
He said emphasis and more resources would be put in courting investors from markets that have already shown an appetite for investing in the country such as China, India and Mauritius and new emerging markets in the Middle East.
“We will also aggressively engage the various investment source markets including Western countries such as the USA, United Kingdom, Europe and Brics countries,” he said.
Zimbabwe has for long been punching well below its weight in terms of investment attraction.
Investment inflow figures compiled by Unctad in its World Investment Report, show that while the country attracted US$400 million worth of investment in 2012, other countries in the region such as Zambia and Mozambique drew in between US$1 billion and US$2 billion in foreign direct investment.
Mr Chanakira said there was need to continue improving the country’s competitiveness as an investment destination. In this regard, he said the authority would push for a transparent and consistent investment policy framework.
He said there was need for ensuring “harmony between the twin objectives of FDI promotion and indigenisation and economic empowerment of Zimbabwean people.”
Mr Chanakira noted that the country had potential to surpass some of the countries in the region in terms of attracting FDI. “If you rewind back to 1998, you will notice that Zimbabwe’s investment inflows were double that of Zambia for example.”
He said the authority was aware of the fact that the country could not expect to attract meaningful FDI if there was no sizable domestic investment taking place in the country.
It was therefore imperative that measures be put in place to encourage domestic investment. Such measures include the engagement of the international financial community to ensure that lines of credit are availed to local investors.
Local resources such as land should also be collateralised to unlock value by giving them title.
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