Intra-Regional Foreign Direct Investment In SADC: South Africa and Mauritius Outward Foreign Direct Investment
Date
2017-03-30
Authors
Nkuna, Onelie B.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research consortium
Abstract
This paper looks at intra-SADC (Southern African Development Community)
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and focuses on Mauritius and South Africa’s
outward FDI. Data from 1999 to 2010 are collated and qualitative analyses
conducted. The study reveals that Mauritius’ outward FDI was mainly in the service
sector and largely went to Madagascar, Seychelles and Mozambique, which were also
the country’s main trading partners, except for Botswana. Meanwhile, South African
investments were mainly in Mauritius, Tanzania and Mozambique, while the country’s
main trading partners were Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Angola. The
study also found the following to be potential drivers of Mauritian and South African
outward investments, and hence intra-SADC FDI flows: geographical proximity, market
access, liberalized markets, stable macroeconomic and political environment, natural
resource availability, and policy and institutional framework. Graphical analyses and
simple correlations reveal that trade and FDI are positively correlated for Mauritius
and South Africa’s outward investment, suggestive of a complementarity relationship.