The Sunday Mail
Business Reporter
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe Deputy Governor Dr Khupukile Mlambo has called for collaborative efforts to deal with Zimbabwe’s competitiveness challenges, urging technical working groups on the matter to speedily conclude their work.Dr Mlambo said this at the Zimbabwe Economic and National Competitiveness conference in Harare last week.
“Competitiveness remains a key pillar for sustainable economic development in Zimbabwe (and) collaborative effort is required to deal with the key competitiveness challenges in the country. The country needs to expeditiously deal with ease of doing business reforms,” said Dr Mlambo.
Zimbabwe has been scoring badly in terms of the World Bank ease of doing business rankings and the Global Competitiveness Index. In terms of ease of doing business, Zimbabwe is ranked 155th out of 189 economies according to the 2016 data, which is below the Sub-Saharan African average of 143.
Regional counterparts Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Lesotho are ranked 72, 73, 101 and 114 respectively. The ease of doing business index ranks countries against each other based on how conducive the regulatory environment is to business and protection of property rights.
President Mugabe last year called for an overhaul of the Companies Act in line with the Rapid Results Approach Framework and promised that Government would push for a “robust legislative framework” to establish a One-Stop-Shop Investment Centre that streamlines processes and procedures.
So far, the Companies Bill has been drafted and a stakeholder workshop to review draft was held on September 28 and 29 with various interested groups such as bankers, academia, industry, business, accountants and lawyers, making their recommendations.
Laws such as the Shop Licensing Act have already been amended. Team leader of the technical working group on “Starting a business and protection of minority investors”, who is also the Deputy Chief Registrar of Companies under the Ministry of Justice, Mr Willie Mushayi, told The Sunday Mail Business that an update on the Companies Bill would be made in due course.
The 2016 Zimbabwe National Competitiveness Report identifies three areas affecting competitiveness in Zimbabwe; costs and fees relating to Government (such as taxes, Environmental Management Agency fees, tariffs and trade taxes), utility charges by public enterprises and municipalities, and private sector inefficiencies and structural rigidities.
Dr Mlambo also said high finance costs were making Zimbabwe uncompetitive.
