The Sunday Mail
Douglas Munatsi
IN February this year, the Zimbabwe Investment Development Agency (ZIDA) Act was signed into law, bringing the organisation to life.
Some may ask, what exactly is ZIDA, and why do we need it?
ZIDA is a statutory agency that is born from an Act of Parliament.
Its biggest job is the promotion and protection of investments in Zimbabwe.
ZIDA is there to make it easier for a businesses to invest in the country.
It is a one-stop-shop for investors.
What does this mean?
Before ZIDA, investors had to deal with many different agencies which included the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA), the Joint Ventures Unit and the Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA).
These agencies have all now been brought under one roof as ZIDA.
To invest in Zimbabwe, an investor needed many licences.
This meant that they had to go from one Government department to the other.
They had to go to Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), the Registrar-General, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority, town or rural councils, NSSA, EMA and other Ministries.
All this red tape discouraged investors, both local and foreign. Now, an investor will not need to go to all these departments.
All these services will now be offered under one roof at ZIDA.
Already, ZIDA has been involved in facilitating successful investments into Zimbabwe. This includes new investments in mining, agriculture, manufacturing, energy and other key sectors of the economy.
It is ZIDA’s job to assess all investment transactions. This is to make sure they are done properly, and for the country’s benefit.
This includes joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, public private sector partnerships and all other investments into the country.
ZIDA works with local companies to help them increase exports via bilateral relationships with other countries.
Zimbabwe is making it easier for investors to enter the market. ZIDA is a major part of that progress.
Articulating the
President’s vision
Talking about reforms and political will, ZIDA was a bold move by the New Dispensation under the leadership of President Mnangagwa.
What the President said to me when I came in (into office) was that we have to work and position ourselves to match anyone else in the world.
He wants us to match Singapore. Singapore has been doing this successfully for over 50 years.
In fact, Singapore is the best in the world by any measure.
They have beaten the Western countries.
Countries such as Czech Republic are coming up but they cannot beat Singapore in terms of creativity and in terms of opening up to investors.
That is where the benchmark is, it is extremely high.
The CEO of Zimbabwe Incorporated (President Mnangagwa) wants us to be the best in the world in our role to promote investments.
If you come into Zimbabwe and you want to register a company, the standard is 11 days, in Singapore the standard is two hours.
Singapore is now even using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to do a lot of hard work and His Excellency, the President wants us to get there.
In Africa, the best is Mauritius, then Botswana and Rwanda. Closer to home in the Sadc region, we are not even in the top five. It also shows how much we need to do in terms of heavy lifting.
In private sector language, we have what we call the B-HAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), which is an invention of top management brains in the world that say if you want to go where you want to go, you define what your bold, hairy and audacious goal is.
Our B-HAG is to be an upper middle-income economy by 2030. It is a bold, hairy and ambitious vision. It is not stuff for kids and it is what the President has clearly laid out for us.
ZIDA’s devolution perspectives
Looking at the numbers, for us to become an upper middle-income economy, we need to get to US$4 000 (Gross National Income per capita).
That means we need to grow at a rate of 11 percent per annum. Economists will know that no one has grown at that level except China and to a less extent Botswana in the past 20 years.
The task ahead of us is really heavy lifting. You cannot achieve that level of growth at the rate that we have been doing things and with the energy that we have been using.
We need to lift everything.
When we are done with the National Development Strategy, we should be able to prove to Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube and the chief executive of the country (President Mnangagwa) that this growth rate is achievable and credible and it meets our vision of building an economy that is going to be upper middle-income.
It also means that we have to disaggregate that growth target to every province. It means that each province needs to build its own balance scorecard, for example, in the United States, California is bigger than some countries, and in South Africa, the economy of Gauteng is bigger than other countries.
All provinces should grow by an average of 11 percent, that is compound growth which means that the task ahead for all of us is huge. Other provinces that are more endowed with resources can grow better than this.
Provincial economies will be key in the achievement of the country’s vision of being an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
ZIDA will assist all provinces to attain their fundamental economic potential and ensure each province contributes to the 2030 target.
ZIDA will work closely with the representatives, with all Provincial Ministers involved in identification, development and implementation of bankable projects based on comparative advantages of each province; and promotion, planning and implementation of investment promotion.
Facets of ZIDA’s interventions
Under virtual interfacing, ZIDA has a portal for uploading available local authority projects on its website.
It has a matchmaking tool for provincial projects with local and foreign investors. This helps to facilitate investor interaction.
On project identification and preparation ZIDA is involved in identifying areas of comparative advantage or the focus sector.
It works on preparing and packaging project profiles as well as developing projects to bankability.
ZIDA offers investment capacity development for provinces and local authorities.
This is done through developing investment promotion frameworks, developing promotional materials, coordinating investment workshops and exhibitions, incoming and outbound investment missions as well as capacity building seminar series.
Furthermore, ZIDA carries out measurement of district/provincial economic activity such as the GDP.
We develop a ranking matrix per province.
Mr Douglas Munatsi is the chief executive of ZIDA. He shared these views in response to questions from The Sunday Mail’s Kuda Bwititi as well as in a presentation to Ministers of State for Provincial Affairs.
