The Sunday News
GOVERNMENT is planning to set up a one stop shop centre where the issuing of export licences will be done under one roof in a move set to expedite the licence-issuing process.
Speaking in Bulawayo last week Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa said following concerns from industry on the bureaucratic procedures they were facing when trying to acquire export licences, Government was now planning to have the process done under one roof.
“When an investor comes to Zimbabwe and for example he wants to go into platinum mining, he will go to the Ministry of Mines and he passes there but the ministry will then say but the processing is the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry and he has to go to the Ministry of Industry and if they want water, they will have to go to the Ministry of Water. From water he will then be referred to the Ministry of Energy for electricity and to export he has to go to another ministry and so on and so on, so it is necessary that we create a one stop shop where all the answers are given at one place and everything is done at one table,” said the Vice-President.
“We must have a methodology that despite that the minister is away the exporter must be attended to immediately and this is what we want to do and we are serious in achieving the one-stop shop.”
ZimTrade board chairman Mr Lance Jena said in an interview that his organisation was planning to engage relevant stakeholders over the matter.
“My hope is that we will talk with various stakeholders and various ministries such as the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Finance and the Agricultural Marketing Authority, wherever possible or wherever feasible, bring all the exporting requirements under one roof, where possible,” said Mr Jena.
He said the concept would be similar to the one that the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) has, where everything is done at one place.
“The Government established the ZIA, as the one shop centre for investment and our hope is that we are able to drive ZimTrade as one shop centre for exports and most of the documentation, including where possible the CDI 1 forms from the banks if that is acceptable, to be done under one roof,” said Mr Jena.
He said establishing the ZimTrade one stop centre would expedite the licensing of exporters.
“That is one of our objectives, to simplify the process for the exporters. I have heard one exporter from Bulawayo saying they used to travel to Harare to get an export licence but they can get it from the regional office,” said Mr Jena.
He said ZimTrade was working on improving export trade by responding to industry needs.
“In our strategic planning section, we redefined very strongly our mission that we are here to energise the growth of the Zimbabwean export market and creating a one shop export is exactly one thing that we will be doing.”
In an interview Bulawayo Entrepreneurs Association president Mr Isaiah Jonga said setting up the one stop shop centre was long overdue.
“That will be a great move if ZimTrade sets up the centre because most times businessespeople from Bulawayo lose a lot of time going to Harare and moving from one office to another seeking these export licences. If this is done under one roof it will save a lot of time and money,” said Mr Jonga.
However, Association of Business in Zimbabwe chief executive officer Mr Lucky Mlilo expressed skepticism on how the concept would work.
‘It’s a good concept but I really don’t know how it would work. It would be interesting how they will do it because the ZIA concept has not been really successful because organisations like Zimra operate under different structures,” said Mr Mlilo.
He, however, said the decentralisation of acquiring of import licences on agriculture products was a commendable move which had seen companies easily benefiting.
