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Zambia's action also creates problems for other underdeveloped countries, which need foreign venture capital in order to develop both their resources and their economies. Although Chile made arrangements to pay the owners of expropriated American firms for their losses in three years, foreign investors have been understandably slow to sink new funds into operations there. Peru's military junta has frightened outside investors by its seizure of International Petroleum Co.'s properties last October. The U.S.-owned Southern Peru Copper Corp., which was ready to invest $350 million to develop its copper ore concession a year ago, now seems less interested in expansion, and is refraining from committing itself until it has a better idea of the junta's plans.
Zambia's greatest damage will probably be to itself. The country needs private investment capital, and, as New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller said on his recent South American tour, "investment capital likes to go where it is loved." Kaunda's action can only encourage potential Zambian investors to go elsewhere in search of affection.