Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa spoke to more than 300 UW students and Seattle locals on Zambia's efforts to support foreign investment last night in Kane Hall.

"We have decided to come this far in search of business," Mwanawasa said. "I'm glad you've turned out in hundreds."

He explained that since Zambia's transformation from a one-party state to a democracy, the government has been promoting a liberal market by continually privatizing government-owned enterprises.

"Zambia is now user friendly," Mwanawasa said, followed by laughter from the audience.

He listed the variety of natural resources attracting investors to Zambia, including copper, uranium and 40 percent of the supply of Southern Africa's fresh water. He also noted that with 56 percent of its landmass available for production, the cost of doing business in Zambia is outweighed by several benefits.

The Zambian economy has also experienced a 5 percent GDP growth over the past five years.

"Zambia is one of the safest African countries to invest in, despite being surrounded by eight other countries, including Zimbabwe," Mwanawasa said.

Mwanawasa has been tied to the controversy surrounding whether Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's would attend the Africa Summit scheduled for December in Lisbon, Portugal.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in which Mwanawasa is chairman, to ask Mugabe not to attend. Mwanawasa said Sept. 21, 2007 that he would boycott the Summit if Mugabe were to be barred from attending.

"The situation in Zimbabwe affects my country more than it affects the U.S." Mwanawasa told students. "The price of bread could be 250 USD in the morning and then 305 USD in the evening in Zimbabwe. We have decided to assist their economy because it is not the politicians that are suffering the most, but the poor Zimbabweans."

Beginning in 2000, Mugabe pushed for violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms, causing official inflation to increase by 5,000 percent and citizens to flee. Great Britain estimates that 100,000 Zimbabweans each month are illegally fleeing to neighboring South Africa, he said.

"We have felt that the solution does not lie in isolating Zimbabwe, but we must engage in dialogue, because at the end of the day it is possible to reach a consensus," Mwanawasa said about his position on communication with Mugabe.

Mwanawasa was elected as the third president of Zambia in 2001, and has since been re-elected to a second term. He has said the focus of his administration is to fight corruption and complete Zambia's new constitution before he is out of office.

[Reach reporter Shanelle Smith at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]