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Harare - Zimbabwe’s investment climate is the worst in the SADC region with a ranking of 170 in terms of protecting investors, an official said on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) chief executive officer Richard Mbaiwa told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce that local investment laws remained a major impediment to foreign direct investment (FDI).
“It is clear that as a country, we are not performing to our best potential in terms of investment inflows especially if you compare with countries with similar resource endowment in the region,” he said.
Mbaiwa also attributed the low investments in the country to bad publicity, policy inconsistencies, sanctions and liquidity constraints among other impediments.
Mubaiwa’s admission comes at a time investments into the country have significantly declined.
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange recorded its worst turnover since 2009 for the first four months of 2015.
According to official statistics only $98.9m was invested on the bourse compared with the peak of $170m recorded in the first four months of 2014.
On average since 2010, the ZSE has been recording average turnover of at least $150m in the first four months of the year.
In terms of FDIs Zimbabwe received investment worth $60m while in 2010 it received $166m, $387m in 2011 while in 2012 it received $400m before reaching about $410m in 2013.
At peak in 1998, the country received FDIs worth $443.3m.
