Govt urged to extend tourism SEZ to rest of country

25 Sep, 2016 - 00:09 0 Views
Govt urged to extend tourism SEZ to rest of country Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa

The Sunday News

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa

Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa

Roberta Katunga, Senior Business Reporter
TOURISM operators have urged the Government to extend the proposed designation of tourism economic zones to areas that are in dire need of investment and development.

According to Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, the Special Economic Zones Bill which was approved by Parliament and is awaiting Presidential assent, will boost tourism through implementation of the designation of Victoria Falls-Hwange-Binga-Kariba tourism corridor as a special economic zone.

However, players in the tourism sector said they feel there were other tourism areas in the country that should be declared SEZs like the Eastern Highlands and Masvingo as there is low tourism activity.

African Bush Camps chief executive officer Mr Bekezela Ndlovu said implementing tourism economic zones was commendable as it would spur growth and development in the sector that contributes significantly to job creation and the fiscus.

“As a sector, we welcome the designation of tourism corridors as SEZs but there are areas in the country that actually need to attract investors as they have low visitor numbers and are not as marketed or exposed to tourists. The Victoria Falls-Hwange-Binga-Kariba corridor is the most popular tourism zone in the country and we need to give a chance to areas like the Eastern Highlands,” said Mr Ndlovu.

He said it was important for the Government to introduce more measures to boost the tourism sector which is depicted as a low hanging fruit in terms of the economy.

“In as much as people will be allowed to come in and invest in our country, we have to understand that they cannot do so without importing some of the capital goods needed for the tourism sector. All these things have to be put into consideration before implementing economic zones,” he said.

Wenhau Safaris and Tours’ Mr Wengayi Nhau said implementation of the SEZs will help the sector given all things equal saying implementation of the policy was the important step as people could craft good policies on paper and fail to implement them.

Mr Nhau said the SEZs policy would help in improving infrastructure and urged the Government to also introduce statutory instruments that support the initiatives.

“Designation of economic zones will encourage investment into those areas that have been identified. Hwange for example is not yet fully utilised as we have fishing resorts like Mlibizi that are under-utilised. Through the implementation of SEZs our product profile will increase and this means tourists will then spend longer nights in the country thus increasing tourism revenue,” said Mr Nhau.

He said the more activities a destination has, the more time visitors will spend in that particular destination. Mr Nhau said the Hwange National Park aerodrome which has one of the longest runways in the country (four kilometres) could also benefit from investment and refurbishment which can then translate to direct flights to the area.

“There is a long chain of benefits if the SEZs are implemented according to international best practice as investors are concerned with conforming to international standards,” he said.

Meanwhile, Minister Chinamasa said in order to facilitate increased investment opportunities in the tourism industry, the Government renewed Statutory Instrument 5 of 2016 for the purposes of exempting tourism operators from paying duty for the importation of capital goods.

“This should enable tourism operators to import capital goods to improve on service delivery and improve product competitiveness,” said Minister Chinamasa.

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds