‘SA investors wary of Zim environment’

via ‘SA investors wary of Zim environment’ – DailyNews Live 15 April 2015 by Kudzai Chawafambira

HARARE – Prospective South African investors have expressed concern over bureaucracy and inefficiencies in the Zimbabwean business environment.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Charles Msipa told businessdaily yesterday that South African investors want the country to have an effective one-stop shop for processing investment proposals.

“Prospective investors articulated a desire to have a consolidated view of the information and regulations pertaining to investment in Zimbabwe,” said Msipa, who was part of the South Africa-Zimbabwe business forum that met in Pretoria last week.

The delegation was part of President Robert Mugabe’s official three-day State visit to neighbouring South Africa focusing on bilateral and economic cooperation as well as regional and continental matters.

Msipa said various South African investors such as the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Export Credit Insurance Corporation were willing to fund more projects in Zimbabwe, but found the doing business environment prohibitive.

“As you know, both IDC and Development Bank of Southern Africa have already provided debt-funding on some important infrastructure projects in Zimbabwe,” he said.

This comes as Zimbabwe — currently ranked number 170 out of 189 economies on the World Bank Doing Business Indicators — has been failing to formulate policies that compel registration of foreign start-up business as well as realigning laws in order to create a one-stop investment shop.

The World Bank recently urged Zimbabwe to revamp its business environment as part of strategies to attract much needed foreign investment and improve its low raking on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index.

“Of concern has been the consecutive downfall of the country’s ranking on the World Bank Doing Business Indicators. This does indicate that the cost, time and procedures for doing business in Zimbabwe is high for locals and so deters even the foreign investors,” said the World Bank.

Zimbabwe’s poor investment climate has seen foreign direct investment declining significantly in recent years, amounting to $376 million last year from $410 million dollars in 2013.