For those going to Zimbabwe for pleasure, not business, they should not miss Victoria Falls, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. (Photo : dmbtraveler195/YouTube)
The clock is ticking for Chinese and other foreign investors doing business in Zimbabwe.
April 1 marks the deadline for foreign companies to comply with the Zimbabwean government’s indigenisation law, reported Zimbabwe Independent.
Patrick Zhuwao, minister of the Youth, Indigenization and Economic Empowerment, said that the “cabinet unanimously passed a resolution directing that from 1 April 2016, all line ministries proceed to issue orders to licensing authority to cancel licences of non-compliant businesses within their respective sectors of the economy.”
Zhuwao, who announced the deadline on March 23, further said to foreign-owned businesses, “It’s either you comply or you close shop,” according to Radio France International.
The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act requires foreign firms to sell 51 percent shares to locals.
The government likewise enforces a new policy that would limit foreigners from “operating in reserved areas, such as retail and agriculture,” reported Namibian Sun.
Zhang Ning, a research fellow at the National Academy of Economic Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the indigenisation act is “extremely unfair to foreign investors.”
President Xi Jinping and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe signed “a bilateral economic and technological cooperation agreement and a series of other deals covering such fields as infrastructure construction, production capacity, investment and financing, as well as wild life protection,” reported the Xinhua News Agency.
The 12 investment agreements signed by them amount to $4 billion, according to The Herald.
President Xi visited Zimbabwe on Dec.1-2, 2015. Prior to it, Jiang Zemin was the last Chinese president to set foot in the country during a state visit in May 1996.
“Since 2000 China has emerged as Africa’s largest trading partner,” said Wenjie Chen, David Dollar, and Heiwai Tang in their Aug. 2015 report, “Why is China Investing in Africa? Evidence from the Firm Level.”
