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Prosper Ndlovu Business Editor
TURNING around the economy is a top priority for the Presidency, which is seized with fast-tracking key business reforms to attract foreign direct investment and energise domestic entrepreneurship, a top government official said.
Mary Mubi, a senior principal director in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), said a quick economic revival, riding on on-going investment architecture reforms, was certain in the short to medium term.
The OPC is spearheading the “doing business environment” reform process under the rapid results framework, a major component of President Robert Mugabe’s 10-point plan launched last August.
“Certainly the direction is clear. Zim-Asset is all about growing our economy and we can only grow the economy if we facilitate entrepreneurship. So, really, the prime focus is about putting in place measures that energise our entrepreneurs,” said Amb Mubi, speaking at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) currently underway in Bulawayo.
The Office of the President and Cabinet is exhibiting at the ZITF.
Amb Mubi added: “Healthy economies aren’t built by foreign investors only. There has to be a local drive. If you want to really grow your economy, you’ve to target local entrepreneurs.”
According to a 2015 World Bank Report, Zimbabwe is ranked 155th out of 189 economies on the ease of doing business globally. It is expected that the rankings will be significantly improved with the implementation of the ongoing reforms.
Among the reform processes the government targets reducing the period for starting a business from the current 30 days to 15 days by May 13, 2016, and to have a final draft of the Companies Bill the same month.
The OPC embarked on the rapid results initiative approach to the ease of doing business in Zimbabwe as a response to President Mugabe’s call to improve the investment climate.
Other highlights include protecting minority investors, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency, paying taxes and trading across borders and dealing with construction permits and registering property.
The first 100 days were launched in September 2015 and since then notable progress, with the support of the World Bank group, has been made in improving the business environment for local entrepreneurs as well as laying the foundations to attract sustainable and mutually beneficial foreign direct investment.
While the country needs foreign direct investment, the principal director said a domestic-driven turnaround process was sustainable in the long term.
“Our local entrepreneurs must be empowered to start businesses. I don’t think many countries have grown by attracting foreign investment but locally driven growth. So, the reform processes are really targeted at ensuring that we energise our entrepreneurs,” Mubi added.
“We’ve got so many bright minds out there and if we don’t create employment through energising our entrepreneurs we’re not going to grow.
Hence the 10-point plan seeks to achieve that by relooking into a number of legislative processes that affect investment.
“In some instances it’s about cutting the period of time for advertising, in some it’s harmonising regulatory processes such as statutory regulations and company registration.”
She said the reform measures would also incentivise Diaspora investment.
“We’ve lots of Diasporans out there, some are retiring and want to come and start business at home but the processes sometimes are cumbersome,” said Amb Mubi.
She said the government was adopting a modern economic approach, which embraces information communication technology evidenced by the number of government services that are now accessible online.
“There has been a momentum built because ultimately there has to be a change in how we do things,” said Mubi.
She said Zimbabwe was working towards normalising its relations with multilateral institutions such as the World Bank as part of efforts to address its negative credit image and access fresh funding.
Amb Mubi said the country was on track towards meeting its investment reform targets as proposed during engagements with the World Bank last year.
“One of their concerns was to have a number of changes to be made by June this year so that we make an impact on our ease of doing business ranking.
“They said if we manage to do what we proposed it would be unprecedented, it hasn’t happened in many countries,” she said.
Mubi said the on-going business reform process has brought an “incredible spirit” of togetherness as she applauded the level of technical depth, talent and knowledge base exhibited by different interested parties that are working with the government on this drive.
Online Reporter