Chronicle Editor
Farirai Machivenyika, Harare Bureau
ZIMBABWE now has a one-stop investment centre after the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) Bill was yesterday signed into law, consolidating previous agencies and simplifying the process of registering a new business.
It was passed last year and is part of the Government’s broader efforts to simplifying the process of doing business and creating a pro-business environment in Zimbabwe.
While addressing diplomats during a lunch he hosted for them to mark the beginning of the year yesterday, President Mnangagwa confirmed he had signed the Bill into law that morning.
“This morning (yesterday) I signed into law the ZIDA Bill,” said President Mnangagwa.
The new Act establishes the Zimbabwe Development Agency, to facilitate entry and implementation of investment projects as well as coordinate investment programmes and strategies.
The law also provides for organisations that would constitute the Agency. The Agency will be a one-stop shop investment centre which shall have representatives of entities that play a role in the licensing, establishment and operationalisation of investments.
The entities operating from the one-stop centre will include the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), the Environmental Management Agency (EMA), the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA), the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, the State Enterprises Restructuring Agency and specialised investment units and other relevant line ministries.
The President also took the opportunity to brief the diplomats on the legislative agenda that will see the completion of the alignment of various pieces of legislation to the Constitution.
“To date, POSA (the Public Order and Security Act) has been repealed and replaced by the Maintenance of Peace and Order Act, effective 15 November 2019.
“Furthermore, two out of three Bills that will replace the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) have been gazetted. The Protection of Personal Information Bill is still under stakeholder consultation and we trust that it will be gazetted during the first quarter of this year,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said a draft Independent Complaints Mechanism Bill was being evaluated while the International Treaties Bill was under parliamentary consideration.
“An omnibus Constitutional Amendment Bill which includes, inter alia, a number of agreed amendments to the existing electoral law designed to further enhance democratic space in Zimbabwe, has been gazetted and will now be tabled in Parliament,” he said.
President Mnangagwa added that Cabinet had also approved recommendations by the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce chaired by Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi on views raised in a report by international observers to the 2018 harmonised elections as well as the Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry.
“As part of reintegrating Zimbabwe into the global family of nations, my Government is currently conducting an audit of regional, continental and international agreements that we have not yet signed or ratified with a view to honouring our obligations,” he said.
The President also said Zimbabwe’s chairing of the Sadc Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation had increased the country’s contribution to international security architecture.
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