via Investor lethargy: Chinamasa rues politics – New Zimbabwe 29/09/2015
FINANCE minister Patrick Chinamasa has accused western governments of discouraging potential investors from their countries who would have visited Zimbabwe by lying to them about the situation in the country.
“I believe that the delegations which come to Zimbabwe, both trade and investment, remain sitting on the fence not entirely because our environment is not ripe to receive them, no, but because they take cue from their political leaders,” said Chinamasa.
The minister said this to western diplomats and reporters in Harare Monday when he was receiving a $97.9 million development grant from the European Union.
“Until the normalisation of political relationships, I do not think we can find many investors from Europe coming to Zimbabwe.
“Once that is sorted out my belief is, and I put my head on the block, that they will come off the fence,” Chinamasa inisted.
High-powered investor delegations, notably from Germany and France, have, since the beginning of the year, met with President Robert Mugabe who gave them verbal assurance of the safety of their investments should they decide to move into the country.
They (foreign investors) have however demanded that the investment laws be clarified and amended before they full-fill their pledges.
COMMENTS
Come on Pat,
Which rock are you living under. zanu will grab 51% talk to your comrades they will bring you up to speed on how the loot is split.
i.e. investor 49%, ZANU 51%
Not in a 1000 years
China massa,… it has been said that it is better to keep your mouth shut and to let people think you are a stupid idiot than to open your gob and remove all doubt ! Grief man you are as thicker than two sort planks. Why oh why do we have to have these frikkin morons in our government!!
It’s sad when a man who is reported to have been among top of his MBA class sings for his supper like this. Respect for property rights is empirically found to be the central motivator for any investment. Why would western governments single out Zimbabwe for vilification when many other countries prioritize indigenous ownership of the levers of production and get away with it? Such self pity. Such self serving duplicity. We all know his cabal is stealing from the people, and from foreigners too.
This toxic individual was part and parcel of the team that had land owners killed for trying to keep what they bought with Zanu PF permission.
For telling mine owners that contracts signed with them was not valid anymore.
For killing people because they were from a different political party.
For taking money out of business accounts because his party had destroyed the tax base.
For bad mouthing the West and Whites.
You need to have your head read if you think you can trust this guy.
I agree fully with your comment and wish to add people will not invest until Mugabe and zanu are gone.
That is the problem when a govt is in the habit of telling lies to its people. Chinamasa thinks all govts lie to their investing public. He wants the Russian and Indian govts to lie to their investing public to say there is a conducive investment environment even when Essar and Telecel International (60% russian shareholders)are being hounded out of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is wooing Russians to invest $4b in platinum in the Great dyke. The Zimbabwe govt should learn to tell the truth and treat all foreign investors equally.