Oct 19, 2007, 9:09 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - A Ukrainian company has said it wants to help improve Zimbabwe's infrastructure by building a raised motorway over part of Harare, reports said Friday.
Many of Zimbabwe's roads are so badly potholed these days that they look as if they have been shelled.
In a report that is likely to raise the eyebrows of many harassed motorists, the official Herald daily said the planned Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Express Road would link the main road from the international airport with Harare's upmarket suburbs.
It would include a raised section flying over the central railway line and surrounding areas.
Augur Investments has provided 10 million dollars for the construction of the road.
The Ukrainian company says it is willing to invest up to 100 million dollars in development projects, including the construction of 500 upmarket houses, and in agriculture and mining projects, the Herald said.
The newspaper - usually seen as the voice of President Robert Mugabe's government - claimed the Ukrainian project was proof that investor confidence in Zimbabwe was continuing to grow.
Many traditional investors from the West have pulled out of the southern African country in the past six years after a controversial land reform programme triggered economic collapse.
Inflation is the highest in the world at nearly 8,000 per cent, and the takeovers of majority shares in mines and other foreign-owned companies appears to be imminent.
Foreign direct investment in Zimbabwe slumped by 61 per cent in 2006, according to a World Investment Report released by the United Nations this week.
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