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Other board members are Mr Clemens Masango, a principal director in the Immigration Department; Zimbabwe Revenue Authority corporate and legal affairs executive Ms Florence Jambwa, top economists Mr David Mupamhadzi and Mr Nick Moyo, miner Mr Victor Gapare, Unilever managing director Mrs Nancy Guzha and veteran engineer Munetsi Jangwa.

Two more members will be appointed in January.

The new board replaces the Marah Hativagone-led board that served the authority since 2007.

In his brief remarks to the new board, Minister Mashakada challenged the members to come up with policies that promote both foreign and local investments.

“It is about the policies that you will formulate . . . to make Zimbabwe the most preferred investment destination,” he said.

“We need to make sure that investments come.”

ZIA is a statutory body established by an Act of Parliament, the Zimbabwe Investment Authority Act (Chapter 14:30).

The authority promotes, facilitates, regulates and coordinates all investment activities in line with Government policy.

Its major objective is to encourage investments, by both domestic and foreign investors.

Minister Mashakada described the outgoing board as “solid” and applauded it for coming up with policies that made Zimbabwe’s investment climate more conducive.

This included the creation of the One-Stop-Shop Investment Centre.

It was launched to reduce administrative barriers that may inhibit investment and generally improve the environment for doing business in the country.

Since its launch in December, 2010 the OSS has seen significant improvements in the investment approval process, notably the reduction of the period within which an investor can obtain a investment licence from about 49 days to five working days.