Zimbabwe wins US$900m investment

Zimbabwe's national investment agency said Monday it had approved new business projects worth US$906 million in the first five months of the year, an increase of 88.49 percent on last year. In a statement, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) said the manufacturing and mining sectors dominated, with over 50 projects between them out of a total of 75 approved in the period. In the comparative period last year, 72 business projects worth US$104 million were approved. ZIA said the projects would create 5,246 new jobs, and generate US$438 million in export earnings.

But the agency did not say how much of the investment was local or foreign.

Zimbabwe's economy is recovering from ten years of battering it took from the country's long running political instability. In the period, inflation skyrocketed to over one billion percent, and foreign investment dried up.

A coalition government ushered in two years ago has stabilised the economy, but most foreign investors are sitting on the fence, worried by a new law which compels foreign-owned businesses to cede controlling shareholding in any business to locals.