While Zimbabweans are seeing doom and gloom and no prospects of economic recovery under the current regime, foreign investors see a fast-growing economy offering better returns than the developed and emerging markets.
One of Canada’s leading daily papers, The Globe and Mail, described Zimbabwe as one of the frontier markets, together with countries like Argentina, Bangladesh and Vietnam, offering prospects of high returns over the coming decades.
“Frontier markets represent what emerging-market countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China were 20 to 25 years ago,” the paper quoted Mark Mobius, who oversees about $47-billion in frontier- and emerging-market assets at Franklin Templeton Investments, as saying. “By giving investors access to a younger generation of emerging markets, frontier markets represent a compelling investment opportunity.”
Another investment officer, Larry Speidell said: “The frontier is the last place on earth where there is unimpeded opportunity for GDP to catch up.”
The economies of frontier countries are expanding quickly, he said, while “China is slowing, India is a political mess, Brazil is struggling with low commodity prices, and Russia is a kleptocracy.”
Canada is one of the countries that has not recognised last year’s 31 Julyelection results and maintains sanctions on Zimbabwe.
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