WE have recently been getting a lot of flak in Africa and South Africa in particualr from some of our AR guests about hunting and general Africa investment and the likes

Although the report might not be the full story it might be enlightening for some of our AR guests whom say dont buy or invest in SA or Africa //

Also PLEASE note NZ aint bad either (-:

Regards, Peter
---------------------------------

Zambia rated fifth best investment destination
By Business Reporter

ZAMBIA has been rated fifth best investment destination in Africa and 67 out of 155 countries in the world.

This is according to the latest report, Doing Business 2006, which was co-published by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Tunisia are above Zambia in Africa, while New Zealand tops the world with Singapore following, the United States Canada, Norway, Australia and Hong Kong in China.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the least of the 155 countries on ease of doing business rankings, while the five Nordic countries stand out.

According to report, the rankings on starting a business is the average of the country percentile rankings on the procedures, days, cost and paid-in minimum capital requirement to register a business.

It should be noted that having high ranking on the ease of doing business does not mean that a country has no regulation nor does it mean the other way round, says the report.

“Few would argue that it is every business for itself in New Zealand, that workers are abused in Canada or that creditors seize debtors’ assets without a fair process in The Netherlands.

“And to protect the rights of creditors and investors, as well as establish or upgrade property and credit registries, more regulation rather than less is needed to have a high ranking,†the report says.

On the other hand, a high ranking on the ease of doing business does mean that the Government has created a regulatory environment conducive to business operations.

It should be understood that the ranking index is limited in scope to account for a country’s proximity to larger markets quality of infrastructure services other than cross-border trading.

Thus, while Jamaica ranks similarly at 43 on the index to France at 44, this clearly does not mean that businesses are better off operating in Kingston rather than Paris.

For instance, crime and macro-economic imbalances, two issues not directly studied in doing business make Jamaica a less attractive destination for investment.

Peter,

With all due respect...the first criteria of investing would be that the location abides by the rule of law and that equal prottection under the law exists.

I really don't see much of southern Africa passing either of those tests.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike_Dettorre:
Peter,

With all due respect...the first criteria of investing would be that the location abides by the rule of law and that equal prottection under the law exists.

I really don't see much of southern Africa passing either of those tests.

Mike

We ALL need to be careful not to lump all of Africa into the same melting pot, granted a large number of the countries dont essentially abide by the rule of law, BUT that being the case,

WHY is MOST of the Western World going to pour in BILLIONS of US dollars to help out, including the USA, when we know a lot of the money will be wasted, are our Doner governments (all complete fools) or do they just ( ignore some rouge states ) and also ignore our public opinion when it suits them politically and pour in the money anyhow !!!

From my understanding, irrelavent of the actual rule of law, or what you or I might think, our governments often under the auspicies of the UN WILL pour in the Billions, believe me it is going to happen, and some in Africa are definately going to benefit, including the despots, dictators, and the investors, remember money does not discriminate, it only helps to forment and help maintain power

When so called world respected people like Bono Mandela Clinton Blair and other so called statesmen say that (Africa needs urgent help) then the gulliable multitudes within our countries eat of of their hands and cough up the money, that is the way it works unfortuntely in the real world, do our governments actually listen to public opinion, Who knows !!! as I cant personally cant find anyone (whom I speak to) that actually agrees the money should be sent over BUT it still gets sent, so maybe I mix with the wrong people then, but those are the facts as I see it, so dont tell me our esteeemed Western Goverments are ALL squeeky clean when it comes to appropriating our tax dollars

Our guests might also be (very interested to know) that around 40% of ZAMBIA"S budget or money to run the coutry anmd keep it afloat actually comes from overseas DONER countries, mainy the EU, and also from the Worldbank IMF etc

So to repeat myself, whether we like it or not the facts are the money is pouring into Africa regardless of how good or bad their leaders are and the investors do get some benefit as well from that money ..

IMHO the only major differance between the Africa Governments and our Western Governments are in Africa they rule by force and killing people, and our guys rule by stealth and manipulation of the public(-:

In Politics there is a real world and a theoretical world, in the theoritical world we dont dont like dictators whom kill their people to survive, in the real world we dont do much about it, as our governments believe that a dictator can sometimes by suppression of their people create relative stability, which I guess applied under Saddam, now the lid is off the pressure cooker all hell brakes loose, the same apparantly applies in Africa by suppoting the dictator governments the problem is held at bay !!

Another short snippet to back up my origional posting on investment /

Foreign investors to set up oil plant
By Times Reporter

A GROUP of foreign investors is expected in the country this week to hold talks with Government on the possibility of building a modern refinery as an alternative to Indeni Petroleum Refinery.

The consortium of investors is coming from the Royal families of some Middle East countries and will meet Government on the possibility of building an ultra-modern refinery in Zambia.

This follows their meeting with Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Vernon Mwaanga when he was in South Africa to negotiate the release of more locomotives from that country to transport fuel to Zambia.

Peter

quote:

Originally posted by Balla Balla:
Zambia rated fifth best investment destination
By Business Reporter

ZAMBIA has been rated fifth best investment destination in Africa and 67 out of 155 countries in the world.

This is according to the latest report, Doing Business 2006, which was co-published by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Tunisia are above Zambia in Africa, while New Zealand tops the world with Singapore following, the United States Canada, Norway, Australia and Hong Kong in China.

Read the above carefully. Zambia ranks only 67th in the list.

Being realistic how many of us would invest in any other than say the top 20 countries anyway.

Peter,

Isn't this another candidate for the Political forum?

les


Les

'Miscellaneous Topics' is more like it.

George

It proberbly is Political BUT what we need to rememeber is that ZAWA whom are FULLY responsible for running all hunting in Zambia including the issuing of licences and permits are in the main kept afloat and bulk funded by the EU or doner unit from the EU so it is in fact proberbly (very relavent) as if there was no money continually poured into ZAWA coffers they would essentially become bankcrupt and hunting might go under.

The concession and other licencing fees rec'd from local Outfitters dont cover much as ZAWA has many many hunting & wildlife related projects under their wing, including the National Parks, GMA hunting areas, and poaching concerns country wide as well

All ZAWA's projects are intertwined and very dependant upon doner MONEY coming in from outside sources

Peter

Peter

Thank you for taking your time to post this for the rest of us.

I have to disagree with GeorgeS and LHowell, if it is about Africa, politics or not, it belongs in the African forum. I enjoy this type of post(informative) and would have missed it if it had been posted in those other forums, as I don't visit them.

Jason

Quite interesting information /

Peter
---------------------------
Survey shows signs of 'rampant corruption' in Africa

Ray Faure | Johannesburg, South Africa 18 October 2005 01:52

South Africa is ranked number 46 in the latest Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.

Although its score of 4,5 on a scale of 10 beat the global average of 4,11 and was way above the average of three for African countries, it only ranked third on the continent -- being pipped by Botswana in 32nd place with a score of 5,9 and Tunisia in 43rd place with a score of 4,9.

According to Transparency International, 31 of the 44 African states listed on the CPI 2005 scored less than three -- "a sign of rampant corruption".

Zimbabwe and Zambia were ranked joint 107th with a score of 2,6, while Namibia was 47th (score 4,3), Lesotho 70th (3,4) and Mozambique 97th (2,8).

It was no surprise that Nigeria ranks second worst on the continent and 152nd globally with a score of 1,9.

"Nigeria is marked by severe corruption, and has consistently received one of the worst scores in recent CPIs. This can be attributed to the prolonged military dictatorship and the resultant ad hoc nature of issues of governance. In addition, the lack of emphasis on accountability has led to the entrenchment and institutionalisation of the practice of impunity.

"In particular, anti-corruption initiatives lack a holistic approach and two major components in the legal framework are missing, ie. access to information and whistle-blowers protection laws. Despite this worrying situation, the slight improvement recorded since last year can be attributed to the vigorous pursuit of sanctions by the government and the energising of some structures for combating corruption," Transparency International noted.

Chad, however, with a score of 1,7, had the dubious distinction of not only being named the most corrupt nation on the African continent, but also the world's most corrupt state.

According to Transparency International, the African state is marked by political instability, human rights abuses and weak press freedom. Chad is also the location of the challenging World Bank-funded Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline project, which is attempting to defy the "resource curse" by using oil revenues to reduce poverty. The project depends heavily on the political will of the government to respect the rule of law.

"While Chad has achieved a degree of transparency not seen in other oil-rich countries, ongoing reports of mismanagement or corruption must be followed by government action," points out Transparency International. - I-Net Bridge

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:
I have to disagree with GeorgeS and LHowell, if it is about Africa, politics or not, it belongs in the African forum. I enjoy this type of post(informative) and would have missed it if it had been posted in those other forums, as I don't visit them.

Jason

Jason,

I disagree with you. This is the African Big Game Hunting forum, and this thread has nothing to do with African big game hunting.

George

George

You are correct, this thread does not have anything to do with "Africa hunting", but by my count most of the posts(yes, more than half) have nothing to do with "African hunting".

I am sure I am not the only one who would rather read informative posts related to business in Africa, such as this, than posts about "new products for sale" and "check out this rifle". Lets just be glad we are not fighting about the 45-70 as a DG rifle or the 375 as an Elephant gun.... Oh wait!

Jason

Um I just purchased a 45-70 , its not good for dangerous game ? The guy in the store said it was .

It is really up to the moderator to decide whether to (pull this or any other thread) that is considered irrelavant to the topic as we all to a degree have our own opinions on relavance

My personal thoughts are YES it is not Africa Hunting per se, and seeing the vast majority of AR guests certainly by virtue of the number of posts on Africa Hunting Forum topics they have broad based desire to seek diverse Africa input and information it might be worth the (powers to be at AR) humbly considering to maybe ADD a new topic heading being

[ Africa Business & Investment ]

I believe this would be a (very popular forum topic) and extreemly informative not only for hunters but wildlife conservationists, ranchers and business entreprenuers

Maybe the AR boffins can consider it ??

Regards, Peter

Maybe we need a forum for "Africa Talk". It could be right under the "African Travel" forum in the hierarchy of things.

I can't see any reason to move this or to add a forum. The name of this forum is "African Big Game Hunting". What percentage of posts here deal with the hunting of "big game"(Lion, Buffalo, Elephant, Rhino or Hippo) in Africa? Maybe 10%.

The only reason anyone objected to this being placed here is because they did not agree with the message.

As a side note. There are many places that offer better over-all investment opportunities that Africa. But having said that, there are many of us who love Africa enough that we would rather have our money tied up in "risky" African businesses than have that same money earning us a great rate of return invested in a shopping mall in Seattle. Who is getting "richer", the guy who drives past the appartment complex that earns him big bucks or the guy who travels to Botswana to twice a year to check on his struggling safari company?

It is all about choices. If you don't want to invest in Africa then don't. If you don't want to read these "off topic" posts.........

Jason

Govt. wins kudos for prudent economic management

Lusaka - Jubilee-Zambia has congratulated the Zambian government for providing good economic leadership that has restored creditor confidence.

Jubilee Zambia Policy Analyst Jack Zulu said in statement released to ZANIS that good economic management has culminated into donors and creditors granting Zambia debt relief through the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) arrangement.

Mr. Zulu said debt relief was an effective tool for releasing resources that are key in fighting poverty.

He said a speedy implementation of debt cancellation for Zambia would enable the country to invest its resources in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, provide health care, education, clean water and other programmes which would enable the country to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Mr. Zulu however urged creditors not to impose harsh conditions as a prerequisite for debt relief.

“We wish to implore creditors to move away from slapping severe conditionalities as a pre-condition for debt relief,†said Mr. Zulu.

He further urged the government to promote open, accountable and transparent measures in the allocation of debt relief.

The IMF and the World Bank endorsed the G8 proposal to cancel 100 percent of all multilateral debt of selected heavily indebted countries and Zambia is among these countries.

I for one enjoy such posts. I like learning about Africa and things Africa.
The more I learn, the more I want to go and the longer I want to stay, hunting or visiting.
Allen