These are some of the biggest projects announced to date:
Zimbabwe has plenty to offer, with a cornucopia of minerals including the world’s third-biggest platinum-group-metal reserves, and some of the best transport infrastructure in the region. Local ownership rules have been relaxed, as has a currency regime that hindered access to dollars.
The RTGS$, a quasi-currency that isn’t used outside Zimbabwe, fell 30% on the three-month-old interbank market today to 4.55 per dollar, bringing it closer to the black market rate of 6.10. On May 18, the government said it had secured a $500 million loan backed by platinum exports that it would use to boost liquidity in the interbank market.
Still, a disputed 2018 election, in which Mnangagwa retained power, and the violent suppression of protests earlier this year have underscored the country’s instability.
Few companies with a “rational level of risk appetite” will invest in the country in its current state, said Jee-A van der Linde, an economist at NKC African Economics.
The African Development Bank estimated foreign direct investment last year at $470 million, about a third of the $1.1 billion attracted by northern neighbor Zambia and a fraction of the $2.3 billion that flowed into Mozambique, which lies to the east.
For some Zimbabweans, the investment pledges evoke memories of Mugabe, who was prone to announcing mega-deals that didn’t materialize. For example, in September 2017 Mugabe announced plans to revive Zimbabwe Iron & Steel Works Ltd., once the second-largest steelmaker in sub-Saharan Africa. The project never got off the ground.
“Mega-deals may be mega-deals, they may be mega-nonsense,” said Joe Chabikwa, who sells potted plants to passing motorists in the capital, Harare. “These days you believe what you see with your own eyes.”- Bloomberg
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