HARARE - Zimbabwe has been ranked as one of the top three African countries that offer the best investment returns between now and 2016, according to an international investment research group survey.
According to the United Kingdom based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) research, Zimbabwe is ranked third after Nigeria and Kenya as the top three African countries that are forecast to offer best investment return in three years.
The survey was aimed at establishing the African country that offered the best prospects overall for investment returns over the next three years, reported New Ziana.
The report titled: Africa: Institutional Investor Intentions To 2016 said more than one in two institutional investors see Africa as the most attractive region to invest in the next decade, with Zimbabwe listed among the top three followed by Egypt and Ghana.
"Investors are naming highly diverse countries as offering the best prospects for investment returns in the coming three years," New Ziana cited the report.
The main reason highlighted for selecting Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe are agricultural resources, mineral resources and human capital which these countries have.
The participants in the survey disclosed that they were changing their strategies to long term from more speculative short term benefits," the EIU report noted.
EIU is particularly well known for its monthly country reports, five-year country economic forecasts, country risk service reports, and industry reports.
The EIU research interviewed 158 institutions among them pension funds, hedge funds and private banks.
Commenting on the report, Economic Planning and Investment Promotion permanent secretary Dr Desire Sibanda said the prevailing stable macro-economic environment would attract more investors, while the mining and agricultural sectors would draw the largest chunk of investors.
"Zimbabwe is slowly emerging from a decade long economic meltdown induced by sanctions that some Western countries imposed as reprisal for implementing agrarian reforms," he said.
The sanctions saw a reduction in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) resulting in reduced industrial capacity and near collapse of almost all sectors of the economy.
This prompted government to introduce a look East policy which is beginning to bear fruits as evidenced by the huge investments that Asian conglomerates are making in the country.
African countries ranked as offering the least investment returns up to 2016 are Swaziland, Equatorial Guinea, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Benin and Niger.
Zimbabwe's foreign direct investment in 2011 remained at US$125 million, though a jump from the US$105 million recorded in 2012.
- New Ziana
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