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Complacency unacceptable, ministries warned

06 Sep, 2019 - 00:09 0 Views
Complacency unacceptable, ministries warned Dr Sibanda

eBusiness Weekly

Tawanda Musarurwa
The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) has taken issue with ministries that are failing to make progress in respect of ongoing doing business reforms.

Chief Secretary in the OPC Dr Misheck Sibanda, yesterday lamented the slow pace of reforms as some ministries were failing to implement targeted reforms.

“There is nothing to celebrate yet, as there is still a lot more to be accomplished to clear the hurdles that businesses encounter in the operating environment.

“Such delays are contrary to the spirit and intent of improving the business environment. The attitude by some Government Ministries in lacking urgency to resolve outstanding bottlenecks is regrettable to say the least,” said Dr Sibanda while officiating at the launch of the 2020-2021 edition of the ease of doing business reform programme.

“Acting lackadaisically when dealing with economic reforms of national interest is a complete departure from the agreed Government investment drive. This, I must say, is totally unacceptable under the New Dispensation.

“I challenge heads of ministries as technocrats who constitute Government’s top leadership, to take both collective and individual responsibility for the failures of Government.”

The newly launched Ease of Doing Business Project is aimed at ensuring that investment promotion and economic development targets set in the Transitional Stabilisation Programme are achieved by focusing on a favourable climate for companies to operate in line with Vision2030 for an upper middle-income economy.

They are a follow-on on ease of doing business reforms, which the Government has been implementing with the assistance of the World Bank.

However, a general lack of implementation appears to have stalled progress. The country’s current World Bank ranking of 155 out of 189 countries is indicative of this; comparatively Zimbabwe’s SADC counterparts have better rankings, namely: South Africa (82), Botswana (86) and Zambia (87).

Added Dr Sibanda:

“It is clear which ministries are lagging behind or have done nothing despite having committed themselves to implementing the required reforms. I wish to remind colleagues that these reforms are strategic in nature for our economic revival and development as a nation in this competitive global economy.

“By their very nature, they constitute a core element of your performance assessment for your tenure of office.”

Meanwhile, closely related to the ease of doing business reforms, Government has launched a new investment policy, which is expected to drive private sector investment in Zimbabwe to at least 25 percent of GDP by 2030.

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