Christopher Makaza.
Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Dr Ray Ndlukula officially launched the Ease of Doing Business agreed reform Goals under the theme “Duty Executing and Results in Doing Business” at Monomutapa Hotel in Harare on Tuesday.
The launch was attended by various officials from Government Ministries and Parastatals, World Bank Senior Private Sector Specialist Kobing Daniel as well as World Bank Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice Expert Cemike Hacibeyoglu.
In his speech, Dr Ndlukula highlighted that successful implementation of EODB project would improve Zimbabwe`s World Bank ranking which is currently at 155/190 countries. He urged cooperation between government and private sector and development partners to improve Zimbabwe`s rankings.
Dr Ndlukula noted that the new dispensation got $15 billion worth of investment pledges from the international community. He urged all Technical Workers Groups (TWG) to reach out to the OPC giving clear indications on areas that need intervention for necessary assistance during implementation of the EODB programme.
One of the EODB`s Technical Working Groups ‘The Starting a Business’ proposed the reduction of time involved when one wants to start business from the current 32 days to 10 days.
Hacibeyoglu suggested the setting up of a One Stop Shop housing all the concerned parties to save time.
Another TWG, ‘The Construction Permits’ proposed to reduce the time to acquire permits from 180 days to 150 days by synchronising inspections by various interested stakeholders. On this, Hacibeyoglu recommended the outsourcing of private inspectors.
‘The Paying’ Taxes TWG suggested that there was need to consolidate payroll based paynet by NSSA and ZIMDEF through ZIMRA after enacting enabling legislation and ICT interfaces that will reduce amount of time to pay taxes from 242 hours to 160 hours.
‘The Getting Credit’ TWG proposed operationalizing collateral registry by adopting collateral registry software. On this, Hacibeyoglu advised on non-stringent but effective vetting procedures for credit worthiness by mainly considering a financial transformational history check on clients.
‘The Trading across Borders’ TWG highlighted the need to reduce the number of compliance check points at Beit Bridge border post from 8 to 3.
