Business Reporter
BUILDING trust and maintaining the confidence of business leaders and potential investors is a critical task for policymakers, to address challenges that are hindering the ease of doing business.
This comes at a time the Second Republic has made Zimbabwe a safe and conducive investment destination as seen by several high-impact projects across various sectors.
Major successes have been scored in transforming the productive sector through the robust implementation of comprehensive ease of doing business reforms. To further ensure businesses thrive and more potential investors are lured, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, has said the Zimbabwe Industrial Reconstruction and Growth Plan (ZIRGP) (2024-2025) will address challenges that continue to hinder the ease of doing business.
The plan, which will soon be launched comes as the Zimbabwe Industrial Development Policy (2019 to 2023) reached its tenure at the end of last year, while to align the Industrial Development Policy with the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2:2026-2030), the ministry was drafting a one-year transitional plan. The ZIRGP is meant to lay a solid foundation for the Industrial Development Policy which will be launched at the end of next year.
Minister of Industry and Commerce Cde Mangaliso NdlovuIn an interview on the sidelines of a Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) breakfast meeting in Bulawayo on Friday, the minister said the plan will also address some of the challenges hindering business growth.
One key issue that was topical during the event was high taxes, rates and licensing fees among others affecting businesses in the city.
Minister Ndlovu said: “We have looked at the ease and cost of doing business. We used to have a permanent committee that is chaired by the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) and it has been resuscitated. In our discussions we are of the view that we should consolidate all licences that are paid to the Central Government, it could be from different ministries, but it should be up to Government to see how we then distribute the payments when someone acquires one licence.”
He said it might be difficult to put it together initially, but they have tasked the committee to look at how it can be streamlined with the view of reducing some of the compliance costs.
The minister said some of the compliance costs were ridiculously high, giving an example of US$5 000 for an investment license when neighbouring countries were charging around US$200 to US250 as the yardstick.
“We are quite serious about it we will make sure that this is addressed and that is why we have given ourselves the next 15 months to address most of these issues. Our commitment is to have an investment climate that is conducive and more attractive than the region because we are competing whether we like it or not,” said Minister Ndlovu.
“When people find that we have high compliance costs they will compare with our neighbours. Our target is to emerge more competitive, so we will be looking at that.”
He said they will also engage local authorities, working with the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works to ensure it also whips local authorities into line.
Minister Ndlovu said the Government cannot afford to chase away investment because some local authorities do not have foresight.
“We need to say as Government what are our national aspirations and targets so that we work together including with the local authorities.”
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