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In July 2015, President Mugabe assigned Dr Obert Mpofu to head the Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion portfolio. Our Reporter Tinashe Farawo caught up with Dr Mpofu to discuss his latest assignment and how his ministry feeds into the broad socio-economic transformation agenda.
We publish the minister in his own words.
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Dr Obert Mpofu
The prefix “Macro” emphasises the focus that the new ministry places on the major/bigger fundamental economic variables as they relate to planning, economic modelling and economic policy interventions aimed at promoting inclusive growth with jobs.
The President assigned me to focus on Zim-Asset.
This will be anchored on the African Union’s Agenda 2063.
The vision will be realised through medium term plans that are operationalised through annual budgets.
My ministry is responsible for coming up with the macro-economic framework that sets growth targets and acts as a basis for budget formulation.
I was also tasked to champion investment promotion in Zimbabwe.
The task involves creating a conducive investment climate and improving the ease of doing business. My ministry is working on the Investment Policy, which seeks to establish a platform for Zimbabwe to emerge as an attractive investment destination.
The policy will define the role of public, private, domestic and Foreign Direct Investment; harnessing investment for productive capacity building and enhancing international competitiveness.
It also spells out coherence between/among investment policy areas geared towards overall development objectives.
Furthermore, my ministry is coming up with a Zimbabwe Diaspora Policy.
The policy seeks to ensure that the Diaspora actively participates in the development of Zimbabwe. I am working round the clock to achieve growth so that we attain the economic growth target spelt out in Zim-Asset.
All these responsibilities I have alluded to are guided by Zim-Asset and the 10-Point Economic Growth Plan.
The ministry is crafting an Investment Policy and Handbook, which seek to position Zimbabwe as an attractive investment destination.
The Handbook will define the role of public and private sectors and harness Foreign Direct Investment for productive capacity-building and enhancing international competitiveness.
Through this Handbook, we will engage investors, highlighting investment opportunities and we are also pinning hopes on setting up Special Economic Zones to spur economic development.
All this is in line with the 10-Point Economic Growth Plan and in broader fulfillment of Zim-Asset.
Planning
Macro-economic planning entails formulation of Zimbabwe’s economic vision, medium term plans and providing the macro-economic framework that sets growth targets, investment requirements and other macro-economic variables.
The Finance and Economic Development Ministry focuses on fiscal issues: the National Budget, Treasury, the Exchequer, public expenditure and revenue-raising methods.
It also oversees the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on monetary issues, exchange and interest rates, currency and money supply. Nevertheless, all these functions are guided by Zim-Asset or the economic plan produced by our ministry consultatively with other ministries.
My ministry is responsible for planning and setting the country’s trajectory and economic priorities.
Its functions differ, but complement the functions of the Finance and Economic Development Ministry.
The major priority for macro-economic planning is to grow the economy and improve standards of living through working with relevant stakeholders in crafting plans which increase productivity.
Moreover, the ministry is looking forward to a 100 percent investment increase in the coming year.
The various tasks I have been assigned have different targets.
Some tasks are quite urgent and have to be completed before the end of this year, while others are for 2017 and 2018.
We have produced a Work Plan for 2016, which we are implementing.
Promotion
Several foreign delegations have visited Zimbabwe this year to explore investment opportunities.
In the last six months, my ministry has managed to lure over 60 delegations who have scouted for investment opportunities in Zimbabwe and we are talking to them, putting in place the right investment conditions.
The ministry’s priorities and strategies on investment promotion include transforming the Zimbabwe Investment Authority into a one-stop shop.
ZIA would soon have an investment website as part of embracing e-government and introduce an investment handbook to guide investors on how to invest in Zimbabwe, highlighting investment opportunities.
Furthermore, the policy on Special Economic Zones to attract investment and ensure export production capacity is being developed.
Perfect environment
Government has always made efforts to ensure that policies are complementary rather than contradictory.
It has never been Government’s intention to reverse policies without justification. On the issue of corruption, Government has always spoken with one voice and identified corruption as public enemy number one.
To this end, Government has never and does not tolerate corruption. Implementation of the Corporate Governance Framework by all line ministries, all public enterprises, local authorities and the private sector, and pursuing an anti-corruption thrust will address the challenge of corruption.
Investors have raised ease-of-doing business concerns like the long time required to register one’s business, numerous documents that one needs to start a business.
Investors are concerned with the processing of business permits and licences and the inefficiencies of the responsible Government departments, which have resulted in increasing the cost of doing business in the country.
Chinese investors complained that the granting of investors’ work permits takes too long – two months at least.
We are addressing that.
Investors have also complained about high transport costs and unreliable electricity and water supply, which all serve to undermine productivity and competitiveness of the products and services produced in Zimbabwe.
We are seeking investors to improve our energy situation.
Labour market laws have also been cited as one of the major challenge for investment attraction into the country. We are working on labour reforms.
As a country, we have realised that we are lagging behind in FDI attraction.
As such, we need to do a lot of work in order to promote our country as an investment destination of choice and also to compete successfully with our regional counterparts like South Africa, which is in the top three range in terms of FDI attraction.
Government is thus responding by transforming ZIA into a truly one-stop investment centre.
The current position where applications made at ZIA are referred to line ministries has resulted in major delays in the approval process.
This exposes investors to fraud and corruption as they try to minimise application costs, which come in various forms that include movement from one Government office to another, communication, time and hotel accommodation in the case of foreign investors.
Against this background, the ministry is urgently working on reforming the operations at the One Stop Investment Centre at ZIA to make it a world-class centre.
In addition, my ministry is working to organise a Presidential Investors’ Round-table.
This will give room to the President to interface with prominent investors to appreciate their views and concerns on the investment climate in the economy and obtain recommendations on improving the same so as to make Zimbabwe an investment destination of choice.
My ministry, in conjunction with an inter-ministerial Doing Business Committee, recently completed validation meetings to establish the current status of the doing business climate.
The development of a granular action plan to guide the reform agenda in the finance, legal, public and private sectors is underway.
Recently, my ministry started work on the Investment Policy, which seeks to establish a platform for Zimbabwe to emerge as an attractive investment destination.
The Policy aims at defining the role of public, private, domestic and FDI , harnessing investment for productive capacity-building, enhancing international competitiveness and ensuring coherence between investment policies and other policy areas geared towards overall development objectives.
Further, my ministry and the Finance and Economic Development Ministry are working to produce a Bill on the establishment of SEZs.
It will soon be presented to Parliament.
We shall then see the establishment of the SEZ Supervisory Board, which will define the conduct of SEZ Board members and operational modalities for the zones.
The establishment of SEZs will afford investors competitive incentives for them to invest in Zimbabwe.
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