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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Three additional service providers were recently appointed to conduct pre-shipment inspection of imported goods that both give impetus to the Second Republic’s quest for ease of doing business but at the same time ensure that sub–standard goods, including second-hand vehicles, do not flood the country.
For six years, only one company, French head-quartered international certificate agency Bureau Veritas, has been appointed to verify and assess the conformity of imported goods to prevent hazardous and sub standard goods from entering the country.
With the additional goods to be inspected, and other measures such as the ban on second hand vehicles more than 10 years old triggering inspections, Government felt duty bound to raise the number of firms that will conduct the inspections.
The three new companies are The Standard Association of Zimbabwe, Cotecna Inspection of Switzerland and EAA Company Limited of Japan. Secretary for Industry and Commerce Dr Mavis Sibanda said the additional appointments were consistent with the Second Republic’s desire to improve the investment environment as the country moves towards attainment of an upper niddle income economy by 2030 in line with the National Development Strategy 1.
“The new companies started in June and we are happy with the addition. The idea behind raising the number is to improve the ease of doing business environment and speed up the process of pre-inspection. What it means is that people are free to choose from among the four. We are happy with the service providers because we have not yet heard any challenges in the implementation of the pre-inspection exercise,” said Dr Sibanda. In an interview from Switzerland, Cotecna vice president, Ms Lena Sodergren said her firm signed a consignment-based conformity assessment agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce “Cotecna will now be conducting verification of conformity services for: general goods, used motor vehicles and spare parts, consolidated shipments and destination inspections. In addition, Cotecna will be supporting the ministry to build the competence through training and capacity building,” she said.
“These CBCA programmes have been designed to ensure that imports meet quality and safety regulations, thereby protecting Zimbabwean consumers, local industry from unfair competition as well as protecting the environment. Many governments have already set up such schemes to prevent unsafe, substandard and counterfeit products from being imported into their countries.”
She said their role was to ensure that imported products comply with the standards and requirements set by the Zimbabwean authorities.“Once conformity is established, we issue a certificate of conformity preventing the shipment from being rejected and allowing importers to clear their goods,” she said.
On assessment of the conformity of second hand vehicles, Ms Sodergren said Cotecna performs several types of controls that include elementary verification such as documentation review to determine if a vehicle is below 10 years old.
“More advanced visual inspection of the vehicle are also required to confirm for example if the vehicle is right hand drive. Finally, to determine the vehicle structural integrity, several technical and mechanical tests are carried out for radiation emissions, lighting, water damage and corrosion identification and so forth. A certificate of conformity will be issued when the vehicle passes the inspection,” she said.
Her firm was moving around conducting training with officials from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and were also provide technical advice, clear explanations and certification process trainings to the trade community.
Bureau Veritas representative, Mr Tendai Malunga, said they have been playing a key role in various categories of products mandated to go through compulsory pre-export verification of conformity to standards prescribed by the Government of Zimbabwe before such goods are imported into the country with the objective of ensuring consumer safety.
“The verification of conformity process may include processes that includes inspection, laboratory testing, risk assessment to ascertain that the assessed goods meet mandatory safety requirements. The main broad categories of vehicles that are regulated include general goods, used motor vehicles and spare parts as well as consolidated cargo as guided by requisite regulations,” he said.
“Goods or vehicles that meet the applicable standards are issued with a certificate of conformity while goods failing to meet the necessary requirements are issued with a non-conformity report with enforcement at borders and ports of entry being done by customs authorities.”
Online Reporter