adminProsper Ndlovu Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT is working on identifying a raft of incentives to attract investors to buttress the special economic zones approach under the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset), a Cabinet Minister has said.Industry and Commerce Minister Cde Mike Bimha, who was in Bulawayo on Sunday, said his ministry had begun deliberating on specific incentives for particular sectors.
“The starting point is that under Zim Asset we set up special economic zones and we now need to come up with incentives for attracting investment in those specific sectors,” he told Chronicle.
Cde Bimha added: “What we have done is an expression of interest and work is in progress, which involves other ministries, to inventivise these zones.”
He said Government was also looking at the possibility of awarding incentives on specific products manufacturing, as well as export processing zones.
Cde Bimha said extensive study efforts were also underway to compare the country’s economic model with those of regional neighbour states and development countries such as China with the aim of reinforcing the local policy and selling it to investors.
He said: “We have agreed for instance that the starting point for Bulawayo is to declare the city an industrial zone. We now need to come up with specific time lines. This means we have to revisit Zim Asset and come up timelines.
“I am optimistic this approach will take us somewhere as a country.”
Zim Asset is anchored on developing four strategic clusters, food security and nutrition, social service and poverty, education, infrastructure and utilities and value addition and beneficiation.
Captains of industry said the issue of incentives was critical for the country to leap forward economically. Bulawayo business person Dr Ruth Labode said the biggest incentive for companies was availing lines of credit and reliable provision of water and utilities.
“Merely declaring economic zones would not help unless companies have money. Government should find ways of unlocking funding for recapitalisation,” she said adding, “We need to address the water problem and our utilities should also not scare away investors. Capital financing would re-ignite companies and create jobs and disposable income, which is good for the local market.”
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) immediate past president Kumbirai Katsande, said while Zim Asset provides a broader economic framework, it needed to be supported by specific policies.
“Policy consistency is what investors need. We are competing with other countries that also need investors. As such our government should ensure that our policies are the best,” he said.
Katsande said creating these incentives should be tied with job creation to absorb thousands of graduates churned out of the country’s colleges and universities each year.
Meanwhile, the Minister off State for Provincial Affairs in Bulawayo Cde Nomthandazo Eunice Moyo said investment should first benefit local people in terms of employment.
“Every investor who comes to Bulawayo for instance must employ people from this city. Often people feel they are not reconginsed when investors come with their workers from outside,” she said.
Cde Moyo also urged the business community in the city to stand up for the task. Instead of sitting back and crying foul, she said, local people should stand up for the task and engage government in unlocking opportunities.
“Bulawayo has been declared a special economic zone, let us support it. Let us be assertive, Zim-Asset is a programme that needs to be implemented by us. It is in our hands. We have to prove that we are capable and produce things,” Cde Moyo said.
During the official commissioning of the new Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport terminal, President Mugabe said resuscitation of Bulawayo industries was a priority in Government.
He said the city must re-affirm its position as the industrial hub of the country. The recently concluded 14th Zanu-PF Annual National People’s Conference in Chinhoyi also resolved that Government immediately establish special economic zones in different parts of Zimbabwe as a way of reviving industries that collapsed at the height of economic meltdown in the past few years.
Government has also adopted a position that refineries be established to prevent exportation of raw minerals with a call for major changes, especially in the mining sector, to promote transparency and maximise returns to treasury.
Online Reporter