The Sunday News
Noble Ncube, Business Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council is in the process of reviewing procedures and processes of doing business in the city as a way of attracting and retaining investment and help plug de-industrialisation, an official has said.
Last year the Ministry of Local Government, Urban Development and National Housing initiated a programme to allow local authorities to improve their way of doing business with the main focus on the time frame for processing various applications including building plans.
The city’s senior public relations officer, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, said as a result of the initiative by the ministry, the city council was working on a document to ease doing business in the city.
“The City of Bulawayo has been interrogating procedures and processes as well as the current time frames to conduct those activities. These are currently being reviewed in a bid to promote doing business with ease within the City of Bulawayo,” she said.
Mrs Mpofu said the main thrust of Government recommendations was on various functions of the local authorities and general service delivery.
Some of the issues local authorities have been mandated to look at under the programme include approval of building plans, issuance of shop licences, development permits, subdivision permits, health reports, water connections, sewer connections, conveyance for title deeds (subdivisions), conveyance for house/property, inspection of premises of relevant departments, vending licences, water meter testing and proposal for investment.
Although Mrs Mpofu could not pin-point the exact areas where there has been changes, she said businesspeople who registered or applied for any documents this year would benefit as some of the reviewed laws have been approved to improve the ease of doing business initiative.
Commenting on the return of Hlanganani/Sanganai expo to the city, Mrs Mpofu said the city gave pleasure to initiatives that brought growth in tourism sector.
“The City of Bulawayo welcomes the positive development that is bound to bring relief to the hospitality industry and general economic benefits that go with such expos. It is particularly pleasing to note that this is a Government initiative that goes a long way towards development,” she said.
The country in general has made considerable progress in improving the conditions of doing business. Last year during the first 100 days of the Rapid Results Framework, the business environment level of doing business scored high.
The World Bank Doing Business report released in October last year ranked Zimbabwe at 155 out of 189 countries.
This indicates that Zimbabwe moved 16 places up from its original ranking of 171.
At least 100 companies have reportedly closed in Bulawayo resulting in massive losses of employment.
Apart from the city council initiatives, the city has also been earmarked to become a Special Economic Zone, something that will attract more investment.
