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Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
GOVERNMENT is overwhelmed with inquiries from potential investors keen to partner local companies in the implementation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, said here yesterday.

Officially opening the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) 2017 annual congress, VP Mnangagwa also bemoaned high costs of electronic transactions and challenged financial institutions to review charges to promote the use of plastic money.

He told delegates that Government has come up with a string of strategies to address economic challenges in the country including effecting legislative reviews to entice investment.

VP Mnangagwa said Chinese investors have already jumped to grab opportunities in SEZs following the Zimbabwe-China Zhejiang Province Investment Conference where a Memorandum of Understanding was signed. The deal will see Chinese investors exploring investment opportunities in Zimbabwe and constructing an industrial park.

“I am happy to announce that ever since the signing into law of the (SEZs) Bill, we have had numerous inquiries from investors who are interested in investing in various sectors of the economy under the SEZs facility,” said VP Mnangagwa.

The SEZ Act was signed into law late last year and Government has identified three pilot SEZs namely Victoria Falls Integrated Tourism Park, Bulawayo Industrial hub and Sunway City Integrated park in Harare.

On Monday, Government appointed former central bank Governor, Dr Gideon Gono, to lead a new SEZs board that has been tasked with spearheading the implementation of the economic model. VP Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe was open to investors both local and foreign.

“I, therefore, invite bona-fide local and foreign potential investors to come on board and seize the vast trade and investment opportunities available in various sectors and engage in projects that yield fair returns while benefiting our country and its people in a win-win situation in terms of the country’s statutes,” he said.

The VP said the SEZs vision hovers around making Zimbabwe a hub of industrialisation, commerce and international trade in the quest to achieve an empowered society and growing economy.

He said every Zimbabwean has a collective obligation to harness their strength, competencies and skills to meet or surpass a 2.3 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projection by the World Bank in its June 2017 Global Economic Prospect Report, up from 0.7 percent.

VP Mnangagwa said significant progress has been made in realignment and enactment of Bills for Ease of doing Business.

“To date significant progress has been made in drafting eight pieces of legislation, which include the National Competitiveness Act (Chapter 14:36) Number 6 of 2017, Deeds Registries Amendment Act, 2017, and the Judicial Laws Amendment Act (Ease of Settling Commercial and other disputes) Act, 2017 Number 7 of 2017, among others and identifying 13 Statutory Instruments for amendment,” he said.

“Out of these, 11 have been amended and gazetted with only two still outstanding. Currently nine Bills have been drafted to ease the process of doing business in Zimbabwe.”

VP Mnangagwa, who is also Minister of Justice, said the Bills were aimed at improving the investment climate and luring prospective investors to the country.

He said the external sector still remains a threat to economic recovery largely due to weak exports leading to an unsustainable trade deficit although imports have been coming down lately due to SI 64 of 2016.

The VP said the congress’ theme: “consolidating the new normal economy through policy reforms”, dovetails with Government multi-faceted initiatives, which seek to maximise opportunities available in the current environment from both a national and a global perspective guided primarily by Zim-Asset.

He said robust economic reforms, good corporate governance, hard work and diligence were essential in reviving the economy, adding that Government continues to work on improving exports through the Rapid Results Initiative (RRI) of the Ease of Doing Export Business, with a number of reforms both in the public and private sector being implemented.

VP Mnangagwa said austerity measures were being carried out to restructure the budget by reducing the wage bill and incentivising exports. He said other measures include Command Agriculture and financing arrangements, which will all operationalise SEZs.

He said the manufacturing sector should also be harnessed in recovery strategies as he called for a review of the cost of production. On the financial sector, VP Mnangagwa said charges on the use of plastic money were comparably high, adding that a majority of rural folk were yet to embrace the concept.

He said this has led to continued demand for cash, which will only ease if the cost of transacting is reduced.

“The sector has been identified as a key strategic partner in financing the economy from being a primary producer to a producer of diversified manufactured products and services.

“Industry, commerce, insurance, retailing, wholesaling, agro-processing, manufacturing, domestic, and international trade thrive on a vibrant financial sector characterised by depositors’ confidence, funds protection, performing loans, and reasonable lending rates. I, therefore, urge our banks to consider reviewing these transaction costs downwards,” said VP Mnangagwa. The three-day conference started yesterday and ends tomorrow. — @ncubeleon.