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New Matabeleland Chamber of Industries president Busisa Moyo

Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
UNITED Refineries Limited chief executive officer Busisa Moyo has been elected president of the Matabeleland Chamber of Industries (MCI) and will push for the declaration of Bulawayo as a special economic zone.
The chamber is the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries’ chapter in Matabeleland.
Moyo, who was elected the new president at the MCI annual general meeting last week, is expected to lead the chamber for the next two years.
In an interview, Moyo said he was coming in at a time when the business community in Bulawayo was lobbying government to declare Bulawayo a special economic zone.

A special economic zone (SEZ) refers to a geographical region that has economic laws which are more liberal than a country’s typical economic laws. The main objective of SEZ is to increase foreign direct investment by outside investors.

While many countries that include Brazil and India have set up special economic zones, China has been the most successful in implementing SEZ to attract foreign capital.

“As business, we have come up with a special economic zone document to be submitted to government soon. My task as I come in is to turn Bulawayo into a special economic zone and that will be our focus as a chamber. We are finalising the document that we spent the last three months deliberating on,” he said.

Under SEZ, Moyo said the major issue would be to come up with strategies that would attract investment into the city.
“I am optimistic for several reasons that we will be able to achieve our objectives. During the tenure of the inclusive government, there was a lot of political bickering which was detrimental to economic revival. Now that we’ve a cohesive structure, we can achieve that (declaring Bulawayo a special economic zone),” he said adding that any political agenda that ignores special economic zone status to Bulawayo is naïve.

Moyo said during his tenure, they would prioritise issues to do with a policy framework to restore the city’s industrial hub status.
He said efforts to revive Bulawayo in the past did not bring the desired results as stakeholders’ focus was largely based on funding.

“In the past, the biggest mistake that we made in trying to revive Bulawayo industries was that we focused more on issues to do with funding. We need to prioritise a policy framework so that the city is able to attract foreign direct investment,” he said.

A few years ago, the government launched the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund (Dimaf) from which Bulawayo companies did not benefit much.
Outgoing MCI president Cletus Moyo said Bulawayo industries continued to operate below 40 percent capacity utilisation although they managed to get government attention on the challenges facing the firms.

“Companies in Bulawayo continue to face operational constraints causing them to operate below 40 percent. During my tenure in office, we managed to get government’s attention hence the setting up of Dimaf but we were disappointed that the facility did not bring the desired results,” he said adding that a document on the proposal to accord Bulawayo a SEC status will be submitted to government by the end of the month.