The survey ranks six countries - five members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) plus Uganda - on a scale of nought to 100%.

Investment suitability

South Africa: 72.1% Uganda: 70% Tanzania: 60.3% Zambia: 59.5% Mozambique: 56.6% Zimbabwe: 25.4%

The ranking weighs up the risk factors which potential investors scrutinise - political stability, transaction costs, extent of privatisation, and labour and infrastructure costs.

South Africa tops the list, while Zimbabwe, categorised as having an "unacceptable ranking of risk for investment," comes last in line.

"When we started this research more than two years ago, we found that there was a relative amount of optimism, that countries, particularly in southern Africa... would be increasing political liberalisation and economic reforms," Jenny Cargill, chief executive of BusinessMap said.

South Africa witnessed several strikes last year

"Political liberalisation has, as a region, taken a step back in many of the countries, and the economic reforms in some of those countries has also stalled," she added.

South African boost

It has now become even clearer that South Africa "stands apart quite significantly from other countries," she said.

In a downturn, the South African economy has proved to be more resilient, she said.

Even with a weaker rand and a series of strikes, South Africa has proved to be an attractive place to invest.

In the first three quarters of last year, South Africa brought in $1.7bn in foreign direct investment, nearly equalling the total for the whole of 2000, BusinessMap found.

In the absence of strong, local investment, South Africa remains a dominant investor in the region.

This has prompted some nervousness in the region "about South Africans taking over and controlling," she added.