Patrick Flaherty's blog

Notes about state-owned enterprises, sovereign wealth funds and other aspects of state capitalism.

Zimbabwe still doesn't get it

The FT's Beyond Brics has a post up updating Zimbabwe's indigenization law. The law calls for any large foreign company to sell a 51% stake to local Zimbabwe who are considered indigenous. As the post says:

An indigenous Zimbabwean is defined as persons who suffered under colonial-era racial discrimination and their children born after independence in 1980 – which in practice means mainly black Zimbabweans.

It's a good post and gives a good background on why this idea is a terrible idea. 
If a company does not comply, the law allows for the government to take over the operations of the company. It's sad that this law was passed, it's even sadder that the law is set to come into force. Enforcing this law will see either full scale nationalizations or a massive pull out of the few western companies still left in the country. 

Patrick Flaherty a freelance researcher on sovereign wealth funds, state-owned companies and state capitalism. His email address is flahertypj@gmail.com and at @thatpolicyguy

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