JOHANNESBURG, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Friday corruption is a grave concern in Africa and needs to be aggressively dealt with to ensue regional economic development and to attract foreign investments.

Speaking at the South Africa-Zimbabwe Business Conference held in Johannesburg, Mnangagwa said Africa citizens are key in the fight against corruption and called upon them to join governments in the fight.

"The issue of corruption is a very serious issue in Africa. It is issue of grave concern to government not only in Zimbabwe (but) in the whole region," he said.

Transparency International (TIZ), a global civil society organization, last year reported that Zimbabwe is losing at least 1 billion U.S. dollars annually to corruption, with police and local government officials being among the worst offenders.

"We are continuously dealing with the issues of legislation to fight corruption. We continually try to improve with legislation to give them more teeth but still it remains a huge concern in Zimbabwe and probably in the region," Mnangagwa said.

The two-day conference's core purpose is to look into untapped trade and investment opportunities between the two countries.