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Herald Reporter
Government should set economic targets for Zimbabwean diplomats accredited to various countries to gauge their contributions in attracting investment back home, legislators have said.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade portfolio committee chairperson, Cde Kindness Paradza, said there was need for Government to set minimum threshold to Zimbabwe’s ambassadors in foreign lands.
Cde Paradza said this yesterday when Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Ambassador James Manzou was giving oral evidence before the committee on Zimbabwe National Trade Policy Vision and Export Promotion Strategy launched by President Mnangagwa last year.
“As Parliament, we have been pushing to have some scorecards to say what have they (Ambassadors) brought in terms of business and investment,” said Cde Paradza.
Cde Paradza said ambassadors had raised concern about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade taking too long to respond to enquiries of potential investors in countries they are accredited.
In his response, Ambassador Manzou said the idea of setting targets for diplomats was noble, but it was still under consideration.
“The issue of monitoring and evaluation is very important, but in doing so we have to note that indeed missions are working. But in terms of coming up with systems of monitoring and evaluation, this is work in progress,” said Ambassador Manzou.
He said delays in responding to enquiries from diplomats was now a thing of the past following the setting up of the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency(ZIDA), a one stop investment centre.
It combines the mandates of three existing pieces of legislation that deal with investment, namely the Zimbabwe Investment Authority Act, the Special Economic Zones Act and the Joint Ventures.
Online Reporter