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THE last decade has been a “lost opportunity” for many offshore investors who adopted a wait-and-see attitude towards Zimbabwe, Augur Investments – one of the country’s biggest foreign direct investors in recent years – has said.“Many people have adopted a wait-and-see attitude for the last decade,” Augur chief executive Mr Ken Sharpe told journalists during a tour of the Harare Airport Expressway yesterday.
“The lost decade has been a lost opportunity because if you wait and see, you don’t do anything.”
Major projects the company is implementing include the US$80 million Harare Airport road dualisation and construction of a US$100 million shopping complex in Harare.
The two sections of the airport road are expected to be opened next week and the dualisation would be completed in April next year. The company has already spent US$20 million on the project. In terms of the deal, Augur is getting paid in the form of urban land. Government has transferred about 130 hectares in Harare to the firm.
Under the coalition Government, the project was awarded the prestigious National Project Status and was one of the first major infrastructure projects in the post-Zimdollar era.
However, the project was delayed after Augur was paid with unzoned public open spaces and fields that had not been previously used or earmarked for development.
Mr Sharpe said investing in Zimbabwe was not an easy decision to make considering challenges the country has been going through at the time they decided to invest.
“We decided that although the journey was a thousand miles, for us, we took the first step in 2008,” he said. “Yes, the conditions were difficult.
“The risks were very high (but) we took a long-term view on Zimbabwe. We took a decision that we are not involved in politics but in business. So we went ahead and made that investment.”
Zimbabwe has realised substantial investments particularly in the mining sector over the past four years although the country still lags behind when compared with others in sub-Saharan Africa.
Dollarisation of the economy created a better environment for business. FDI flows into Zimbabwe rose to US$400 million last year from US$58 million in 2008.
The sectors which attracted the bulk of the FDI were mining (diamonds, platinum, gold and coal), retail, transport and construction.
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