Published: 19 April 2018

The government is intensifying its open business policy drive by crafting legal documents that will provide backing for this new position.

The development is widely expected to result in major changes to the handling of investment proposals and combat the vice of bureaucratic delays.

Within the last 6 months, Zimbabwe has posted massive strides to re-attracting investment proposals that had suffered stillbirth due to cumbersome processes and bureaucratic influence.

The current upward trajectory influenced by the new position towards an open business policy is set to be further strengthened as government works on a number of legal instruments that will assist to simplify investment procedures.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa confirmed during his official speech at the 38th independence anniversary celebrations that the country is already working on the Investment and Business Facilitation Bill which will ultimately lead to the establishment of a more effective one-stop shop for investors.

Zimbabwe is adopting this model from the Rwandese market, who have an investment processing turnover of just 24 hours.

Intensive meetings held between government and top officials from the Rwanda Development Board outlined how Zimbabwe can improve its operations to fit into the rejuvenated matrix.

There are fears that the current setup has a number of duplicated duties within institutions and ministries which need to be redressed, to allow for the smooth implementation of the open business policy.

At the apex of this position is commitment to effectively deal with corruption, a well-documented factor that scares away investments.

There  is optimism that improving on the processing time for investment proposals will be a massive leap for the country which will also translate to improved rankings on the global  index on the ease of doing business.
- zbc

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