The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
THE Ministry of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion will soon unveil an Investor Handbook aimed at highlighting Zimbabwe as an opportune investment destination of choice.
Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Minister Dr Obert Mpofu said the handbook will help in giving clarity to investors on the country’s political, economic, demographic, cultural and doing business environment.
He said it will also outline the investment opportunities available as well as the policies, regulations and incentives that can be accessed by investors.
Dr Mpofu said the handbook will assist all ministries and Government agencies responsible for promoting investment to speak with one voice with investors readily accessing the handbooks.
“The process (of coming up with an Investor Handbook) is well on course, it will have to pass various stages as the norm with every economic policy where we come up with structured guidelines for investors.
“Investors will avoid the bureaucratic way of visiting several ministries before deciding to invest and this will save time for them as well as Government.
In essence it would be augmenting the One Stop Investment Centre,” Dr Mpofu said.
President Mugabe officially launched the One Stop Shop (OSS) Investment Centre at the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) in 2010 in order to centralise the process of investment licensing but the centre has not been effective.
There was no harmonising of various laws governing investment in order for them to talk to each other.
The ZIA OSS challenges included among other things lack of detailed appreciation of the role of ZIA among the local and international business community, inability of other agencies to abide by the five-day working period, designated OSS officers who did not have authority to issue licences or permits with ministries failing to delegate authorities, conditions of services for OSS officers were not clear while officers at the OSS were not properly oriented towards investment facilitation.
However, Competitions and Tariffs Commission chairman, Mr Dumisani Sibanda said the imminent Investor Handbook would not play an integral role in addressing slow Foreign Direct Investment flow stating that priority should be to collectively attend to the reason behind why local firms were failing.
He said the most visible foreign investment at present was in the retail sector coming through existing firms as “this is the least risky route for foreign investment”.
Said Mr Sidanda: “It is the conditions we make that are making us fail. Local firms know why they are failing, potential investors know why they should not invest in Zimbabwe, based on the information from operating businesses, it is not that they are lacking in information, they know . . .”
He, however, said the Investor Handbook could be a “good advertising tool”.
“A manual prepared under prevailing conditions will need to have a lot of explanations if it is to serve its purpose.
Those who read it will compare its contents with what they know as reasons why Zimbabwe is not ready for sustainable fresh investment and prosperity . . . ,” Mr Sibanda said.
ZIA chairman Dr Nigel Chanakira could not be drawn to divulge the latest information pertaining to the Investor Handbook saying: “I don’t know about that but we always produce material such as a brochure or a handbook. If they have produced another one its good. You can call (Mr) Richard Mubaiwa (ZIA chief executive officer).”
