The Zimbabwe Review: investment

Showing posts with label investment. Show all posts

ZANU-PF’ ‘empowerment, MDC’s ‘more investment’ need not be seen as contradictory

Dec 28, 2011

ZANU-PF and the MDC will start 2012 with a heightened awareness that a crucial election for them and for the country is not far away, whatever the final dates will be. As the parties sell themselves to the voters, it has become clear that their visions of how to bring about an economically prosperous Zimbabwe are starkly different. But are ‘empowerment’ and ‘attracting investment’ best thought of as opposing philosophies, or as two sides of the same coin?

Why Zimbabwe's government is not afraid of 'scaring away foreign investment' with empowerment legislation

Sep 11, 2011

The latest chapter in Zimbabwe's on-going drive for majority local ownership in companies, or 'indigenization,' is the threat to shut down platinum concern, Impala Mining, for non-compliance with the new laws. Many observers have been shocked because it was somehow believed that the government would back off if pushed by a large, influential investor. Some are dismayed at what they see as government intransigence on the issue, others are positively alarmed at what is perceived to be economic recklessness. What are some of the factors behind policies that don't appear to make conventional sense?

Strange goings on at Air Zimbabwe

Aug 25, 2011

Air Zimbabwe has been on the deathbed for years now, with occasional periods of what look like resuscitation before the 'national airline' goes back to close to being comatose again. With hundreds of millions of dollars in debt it has no hope of paying and its pilots on the latest of many strikes, it has just been announced that the carrier is acquiring two new Airbus jets. What is going on at Air Zimbabwe?

The deeper significance of foreign investor interest in TelOne and NetOne

Jul 26, 2011

The rhetoric from some of Zimbabwe's politicians sends very mixed signals about how welcoming the country is to foreign investment. Actual events suggest that there has been a sea-change in government thinking about how to move the country forward economically which many observers have overlooked.

Derelict biodiesel plant: Zimbabwe's incredibly, needlessly wasted asset

Jul 25, 2011

Zimbabwe's efforts to set up a biodiesel plant during the worst of its foreign currency and fuel problems was a good idea at the wrong time. The pressures that led to the setting up of the plant may have become less urgent, but that is no excuse for allowing the plant to just rot away.

For Zimbabwe investors, an overlooked potential benefit of indeginization

Jul 22, 2011

There is nothing at all unusual about governments legislating laws to ensure that their countries are attractive for foreign investors, but that at the same time the investments are structured in ways which maximally benefit the locals. In the controversy over the peculiarities of Zimbabwe's similar efforts, one key potential benefit for investors of greater local shareholding is being overlooked.

Is Nestle's new Mozambique factory related to its political troubles in Zimbabwe?

Jun 26, 2011

Zimbabwe used to be the proud regional hub for many international companies, and was well-placed to play that role. Much of that has changed in recent years, with several of Zimbabwe's neighbours benefiting from its loss. It seems likely that Nestle's plans to open a new factory in Mozambique is not unrelated to the problems the multinational faced with the authorities in Harare in 2009.

Attracting investment: the very different approaches of Tanzania and Zimbabwe

Jun 21, 2011

The presidents of Tanzania and Zimbabwe have joined many others in Malaysia this week for a meeting of global South countries on how to meet the general challenges of development they face. It is also an opportunity for them to network and try to make a pitch for investment in their respective countries. As both countries compete with the rest of the world for foreign investment, it is interesting to look at some of the very different ways they are going about it.

How recent history shapes Zimbabwe government attitudes to foreign investors

Jun 6, 2011

To many observers the words and actions of the current Zimbabwean government often seem irrational. It can seem hard to fathom why Robert Mugabe's government so often seems at odds with 'conventional' thinking that has more or less been accepted by most other governments.

Attitudes to foreign investment: South Africa vs. Zimbabwe

U.S. based retail giant Walmart has just won the South African regulatory authority's go-ahead to buy a major stake in one of that country's biggest chains. There are concerns about what effect such a big new global player in the retail industry will have on employment and the ability to stay in business of small players in the retail value chain. The regulatory body says it has taken these issues into account in the conditions it has laid down for the entry of Walmart into South Africa.

The very different approach to foreign investment of neighbours South Africa and Zimbabwe is striking.

National wealth fund: good idea but Zim's reality suggests 'not now'

Jun 2, 2011

There is no shortage of fancy ideas coming out of the Zimbabwean government to deal with national challenges. There have been innumerable ones over the years, but almost invariably things get messed up in implementation. By most indices Zimbabwe is much worse off than it was ten years ago, let alone 30 years ago at independence.

Now a Zimbabwean minister has just announced that the country is going to set up a Sovereign Wealth Fund "in line with global trends to ensure that future generations benefit from mineral resources being mined today."

Zimbabwe's fantasies about mining investment shareholding

Jun 1, 2011

The concept of deliberate measures to ensure that locals benefit from foreign mining investments has largely been accepted across the world. What form this takes will vary and is subject to how each deal is negotiated between each investor and the local authority concerned.

So there is nothing particularly strange about Zimbabwe's 'indigenization efforts.' Several mining concerns have expressed their willingness to cooperate.

But very few things in Zimbabwe are easy or straightforward.

Zimbabwe, a nation afflicted by a government working against it

May 31, 2011

Zimbabwe's long-ruling regime couches it's by-any-means-necessary grip on power in the language of doing so for the best interests of 'the people.' If those people increasingly express discontent at the methods used for the rulers to hang on to power for their ostensible benefit, that is not accepted as a normal outcome of democracy, but is dismissed as their not fully understanding what is good for them.

Much of what made Zimbabwe a country perceived as a success and a country of great promise has been decimated by controversial policies that have failed to build on the country's strengths.

South Africa's Business Day captured the agony of a country with great potential that repeatedly, consistently seems to make decisions that backfire:

Implementing indigenisation that is also beneficial to Zimbabwe

Mar 27, 2011

by Chido Makunike

The full details may be yet to be clarified, but it looks like Zimbabwe is set on a path of some kind of radical shareholding 'localization,' including of the mines.

Zimbabwe is neither the first nor the only country to seek to maximize the benefits of its natural resources. Nor is it the first to be suspicious that there are 'leakages' that take place in the way foreign-dominated sectors like mining are run.

But the history of forced takeovers (even though it has been denied this is what it will amount to) that mirror Zimbabwe's situation do not provide encouraging signs that the desired results of widespread economic 'empowerment' can be achieved this way.

Zimbabwe finally to emerge from internet dark ages

Feb 1, 2011

One of the clearest and most frustrating signs of how Zimbabwe's decade of economic turmoil has held the country back is the shockingly poor, slow and expensive internet service.

It is startling to be in smart and modern internet cafe in downtown Harare and have levels of connectivity that are far below what one would find in some decrepit internet rooms in much poorer and 'less advanced' countries. Cellphone service has improved a lot in recent years but is still below par.

All this may be about to change following news that the landlocked southern African state is on the verge of being wired to the rest of the world through an undersea cable.

Why Zimbabwe's new 'one stop' investment shop is not a big deal

Dec 22, 2010

Long after many other countries have realized the importance of simplifying their investment procedures, Johnny-come-lately Zimbabwe has also seen the light.

With great fanfare, a ceremony was held in mid-December to open up a One-Stop Investment Shop in Harare. This of course is a welcome development. The bureaucracy involved in doing too many simple things is elaborate and demotivating in Zimbabwe. But the hoopla surrounding this belated, overdue step is embarrassing.

It is wise, justified to choose foreign investors carefully

Dec 7, 2010

by Chido Makunike

The recent walkout by British ambassador Mark Canning from a presentation by Indigenisation Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere made for some titillating headlines.

Canning understandably got bent out of shape by Kasukuwere’s impolitic statement that: “Any investment that will be coming from Britain will be looked at very negatively . . . with British investment, I would use the Malaysian parlance, ‘buy British last.’ You ask me why, they come here to invest and put you under sanctions again.”

Canning is reported to have characterised indigenisation in the form spearheaded by Kasukuwere as “crude populism” and said that the minister’s remarks would “send shivers down the spines of investors.”

On a certain level there is nothing surprising about this exchange between the two men. It is merely another manifestation of the overally poor, deeply dysfunctional official relations between Britain and Zimbabwe.

More signs of Zimbabwe's economic recovery

Oct 18, 2010

News from and about Zimbabwe is overwhelmingly about the country's messy politics. Resolving the politics would positively affect everything else of course, but that is not to say the economy is not beginning to move forward even with the with the long-running political impasse still continuing.

Despite the fascination with the politics, every week more news of the economic recovery underway is beginning to come out.

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