adminAt least 20 foreign businesses will invest millions of dollars in various sectors of Zimbabwe’s economy when Government establishes Special Economic Zones.
Most of the investors are from China, India, Mauritius, Singapore and Malaysia, and a Bill has been crafted to facilitate setting up of these zones before 2015 is out.
SEZs are geographical regions with free-market-oriented laws that invariably exempt investors from certain national legislation. Preferential treatment also extends to regulations on export permits and taxation.
Zimbabwe’s model covers free trade, export processing, industrial estates, free ports and urban enterprises, among other broad economic zones.
Focus is likely to be on mining, agriculture, infrastructure development and manufacturing, with Government and global lending institutions chipping in with additional funding.
Secretary for Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Dr Desire Sibanda was last week optimistic about rapid job-creation, increased FDI inflows and economic growth when he spoke to The Sunday Mail.
“We are finalising the SEZs Bill. Once this Bill becomes law, we will see SEZs become functional. Our ministry has received at least 20 investors since the beginning of 2015, and these investors are in high-level engagements so that they can move into Zimbabwe.
“This model will enable us to achieve several targets in Zim-Asset. For instance, the gross domestic product (growth) forecast in Zim-Asset is 7,2 percent. That can be attained when we introduce SEZs. We are talking about job-creation and all this can be attained.”
He added: “The majority of investors are willing to fund the SEZs, which will be set up based on the four Zim-Asset clusters. Some investors will move into diamond-cutting and polishing since we have precious stones, and those interested in agriculture will move in that direction while others venture into different endeavours.
“There have been successful cases of SEZs worldwide. A role model is China with which we are engaged following the visit by a high-powered delegation of investors a fortnight ago. A good number of countries have created hundreds of thousands of decent jobs through this initiative.
In early 2015, Government said it would table an SEZ Bill before Parliament by mid-June and mould the zones into “single factory, product-specific, industrial parks, knowledge-based service and multi-sectoral wide area models”.
Work is also underway to provide for SEZs under the Zimbabwe Investment Authority Act.
The latest World Bank statistics show that over 3 000 projects are taking place in SEZs in 135 countries, creating more than 68 million direct jobs and US$500 billion of trade-related value-addition.
China introduced the model in the 1980s with its most successful being Shenzhen Village, which developed from a small rural community into a 10 million-strong city in 20 years.
Online Reporter