Zim needs FDI … Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa
Chinamasa says there is need to revise the Indigenisation laws which currently mandate foreigners to cede majority shareholding to locals in foreign business ventures.
He is however being opposed by his fellow cabinet ministers who belong to another school of thought which does not agree that FDI is the panacea to the ailing economy.
One such opponent is President Robert Mugabe’s nephew and Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao who accuses anyone supporting FDI of being a traitor peddling a western agenda.
Introducing the new Stock Exchange Board to Journalists in Harare on Monday, Chinamasa said the revision and clarification of investment laws remain on government’s agenda.
“We are starting with the clearing of our arrears as well as creating an environment which is conducive to attack foreign direct investment,†said Chinamasa.
He added, “We are working very hard on the ease of doing business, on the cost of doing business; we are clarifying a host of our policies which have to do with the environment which will attract foreign direct environment.â€
The treasury chief pleaded with the new bourse board to support the “robust†economic initiatives which government is undertaking so that “we†achieve economic growth.
“All our challenges are largely to do with confidence; confidence in our own people and in what we do,†he said.
“We need to gain confidence of foreigners who may want to come and invest in our country and that confidence can only come if we create an environment that induces confidence.â€
In his monetary speech last week, Reserve Bank governor John Mngudya said Zimbabwe will now allow foreign investors to buy stakes of up to 49 percent in companies listed on its stock exchange from 40 percent previously.
He said measures were meant to boost investment in the country’s economy which is suffering from low growth and a devastating drought.
Post published in: Business