Financial Gazette (Harare)
Munyaradzi Mugowo
2 July 2009
Harare — THE government has ejected civil servants from the Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) board and replaced them with technocrats in an effort to reposition the organisation for a more aggressive investment promotion role as the country pursues investment-led growth.
The restructured 10-member board, drawn from diverse private sector backgrounds, will be announced "soon," according to Desire Mutize, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion.
"In the past the board was filled with civil servants," Mutize said. "This time only people with relevant skills, people with an investment and private sector background have been considered."
Civil servants constituted half of the previous board appointed in 2007 and chaired by former Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president, Marah Hativagone.
Information obtained by The Financial Gazette indicates that the new board will be made up of three members from Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI)'s Trade and Investment Committee and others from similar private sector associations.
Coming at a time when the global investment radar has its lens firmly on Zimbabwe and foreign investors still cautious about the security of capital, the new board has no more than five years to implement a new national investment strategy that seeks to compete for diminishing foreign direct investment (FDI) flows, currently at a record low.
Richard Mbaiwa, ZIA chief executive officer, said the investment promotion and registration agency formed through a merger of the Zimbabwe Investment Center and the Export Processing Zones Authority completed the development of the new investment strategic plan at the weekend and was ready to launch it this week.
The strategy, which will be presented to the new board upon its promulgation, targets creating a national e-investment portal; a one-stop investment shop; facilitate immigration procedures; conduct international investment road shows and post investment attachees in strategic source markets, with the hope of transforming Zimbabwe into a competitive, world-class investment destination.
Proposals to re-craft the strategy, which was last developed in 2007, came about after the government announced a set of financial, trade and investment liberalization policies, which have necessitated changes to the national investment strategy.
In the past, investors have shunned Zimbabwe due to negative perceptions created by delays in the appointment of a new board; a long-drawn out land asset rights dispute involving the government and white farmers; an unstable macroeconomic environment; political upheavals and sanctions, which all stoked up political risk.
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