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The comments follow a report by the World Bank that rated Zimbabwe poorly as a place to do business.
According to the 2012 World Bank report on Doing Business Indicators, Zimbabwe was ranked 171 out of 183 countries, three places down from the 2011 ranking of 168, as one of the countries with too many bureaucracies in approving investments.
The World Bank report says, for example, a standard container of goods from Zimbabwe requires eight documents, takes 53 days and costs $3 280. Importing the same container of goods requires nine documents, take 73 days and costs $5 101.
Association of Businesses in Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Mr Lucky Mlilo, said bureaucracy had an adverse effect on Foreign Direct Investment resulting in loss of business to neighbouring states.
“Countries like Mauritius and Rwanda continue to shine in the rankings as they have reduced or eliminated a lot of red tape processes that are involved in the creation of business in their countries,” he said.
Mr Mlilo said when the one-stop-shop was launched by the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) in 2010, everyone rejoiced.
“The joy has not translated into meaningful gains in investment streams,” he said.
He said the major hurdle that the one-stop- shop had faced was legally operationalising it.
“The ZIA Act does not incorporate the one-stop-shop concept. The various stakeholders like Zimra, Immigration, Registrar of Companies and Ministry of Indigenisation continue to operate using their various Acts,” he said.
Mr Mlilo said it was imperative to incorporate the one-stop-shop concept into the ZIA Act for the country to fully derive benefits from it.
“Last week on national television, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority was complaining of the long bureaucratic process that one has to endure in order to set up a business in tourism,” he said.
The president of Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, Mr Kumbirai Katsande, said the country should learn a lesson from the World Bank ranking.
“It sets a line in the ground which says that we should not as Zimbabweans, be happy about where our economy is at, that we should re-double our efforts to catch up with others, that we should formulate policies which encourage investment and make it easy and possible to do business,” he said.
“In Zimbabwe’s case, we all know where we have just been a few years ago with the highest inflation known to mankind. You cannot expect to walk away from such an immediate history too quickly. This will take time to correct and so to this extent I would agree that we still have some challenges to overcome.”
The major challenges facing Zimbabwe include electricity cuts, where the country was ranked 167. It requires six procedures, takes 125 days and costs $5 305, five percent of per capital income to get electricity connection in the country.
Dealing with construction permits is another nightmare in the country with a global ranking of 166 out of 183. It requires 12 procedures and 614 days to deal with construction permits in Zimbabwe.
Despite the launch of the one-stop-shop by the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) in 2010, Zimbabwe was ranked 144 in 2012 (142 in 2011) on the ease of starting a business.
Zimbabwe also recorded its biggest drop in rankings on the ease of getting credit indicator where the country fell 10 places from 116 in 2011 to 126 in 2012.
While the country’s strength of legal rights index remained unchanged at seven out of 10 (better than Sub-Saharan-six), Zimbabwe performed poorly on the depth of credit information index and the private bureau coverage.
According to the World Bank the only areas where Zimbabwe recorded improved ratings were in the payment of taxes and resolving at 127 down from 132 and 153 down from 166 respectively.
Online Reporter