Story by Tichaona Kurewa
THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) Sub-Committee on Investments says it is working on modalities that will see the block harmonising its investment policies for the region to reap huge benefits.
SADC has various investment opportunities in areas that include mining, agriculture manufacturing and tourism.
However, a lack of coordination by member states has slowed down investment inflows, something SADC is working on correcting.
On the sidelines of the SADC Investment Sub-Committee meeting in Victoria Falls recently, the block confirmed efforts to lure more investments into the region.
‘As a subcommittee, we are looking at attracting investment, we have investment promotion agencies from various Member States. We are looking at how to improve the investment policies within our countries as well as the region. We are trying to align our policies to become an attractive investment destination as a region not only at national level. We are trying not to compete with each other but rather to integrate and have a strategy to attract investment to our countries. We are looking at what incentives we can offer as a region and not as individual countries to attract investors,” said Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency CEO, Mr Tafadzwa Chinamo.
According to the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency, the country is fairing better than its regional counterparts when it comes to investments.
“So far this year we have seen an increase in the amount and number of investors coming into the country. Obviously, we would want to see a fairer spread or distribution of this investment across all sectors. Still, we are seeing a lot more investment into mining, lithium, in particular, has been our biggest attraction,” he added.
Validation of the implementation plan of the SADC Business and investment promotion strategy and building capacity of member states on investor targeting and services were some of the objectives of the meeting.
