Zimbabwe’s new government may soon scrap a 51% requirement of local ownership for foreign investors in the diamond and platinum sectors, in an effort to re-engage international lenders, curb spending and attract investors to revive the country’s battered economy.
The so-called indigenization laws intended to increase black Zimbabweans’ share of the economy, but were opaque and open to abuse.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took the post in November after Robert Mugabe quit under pressure from the military, had already said he would revoke such rule on all other minerals, except from diamonds and platinum.
Last week, however, Mnangagwa hinted he might also free the sectors from the requirement, Bloomberg reports:
“I only excluded diamonds and platinum for now. We do not have a real or deep-rooted or well-interrogated policy on diamonds or platinum,” the 75-year-old president said in an interview in his office in the capital, Harare. “Down the line when we are satisfied that this can also go into the open basket we will do so.”
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