THE Government has started operationalising the One Stop Shop (OSS), five years after the launch of the programme.
The development will see the time spent in the processing of investment approvals being cut from the current 49 days to five days.
Investors have shown interest to set up shop in Zimbabwe with more than 80 business delegations having been received in the country since 2009.
The interest, has however, not translated into anything tangible with the complicated way of doing business in Zimbabwe being cited as one of the impediments.
Last year Zimbabwe was ranked number 171 out of 189 countries on the ease of doing business.
Doing business simply refers to the ease with which investors can get investment licences and permits, including a relaxed visa regime and security of investment.
Doing business also encompasses getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, taxation, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
According to the World Bank 2015 report, starting a business in Zimbabwe requires nine procedures, takes 90 days and costs 114 percent of income per capita.
The country is also lagging behind in terms of dealing with construction permits-ranking 170.
The World Bank said dealing with requisite construction permits in the country needs 12 procedures, takes 614 days and costs 4 423,4 percent of income per capita.
In 2010, the Government launched the OSS concept in an attempt to fast track the process, but it has not been operational since then.
However, Government expects to complete the transformation of the Investment Authority into a full service Investment Promotion Authority from a simple licensing and facilitating board by the end of the year.
The transformation includes the operationalisation of the OSS, the appointment of a new board and an overhaul of the authority’s structure for it to effectively facilitate investment.
The new Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) functions will include marketing, operations, investment facilitation, investment tracking and after-care of established investors.
Apart from appointing a new board and changing the ZIA structure, the Government will streamline investment approval processes to meet the proposed five-day approval target and even aim for less than five-days.
More so Government is angling to correct some of the weaknesses of the current OSS set up which include lack of buy-in from stakeholders.
The OSS was not properly integrated in the ZIA structure hence it was operating as an island within the authority.
Furthermore, there is no clear reporting structure for the OSS seconded officials who were not given powers to make decisions.
The current ZIA board is not fully constituted as it only has seven members out of the required 11, with a narrow skills mix.
And ZIA’s current management structure is also said “not to be meeting the required orientation.”
Under the new thrust, the Ministry of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion officials will relinquish power and turf by delegating investment processing authority to their staff seconded at the OSS investment centre to speedily process applications for investment.
The Government will also deliver an omnibus Act that will give investment direction and clarity to all investment-related matters in particular, a new ZIA to regulate, coordinate and promote all national investments.
These changes are contained in the recommendations to be presented to Cabinet in the near future on the transformation of ZIA.
Statistics show that Zimbabwe is attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) worth US$545 million per year at a time regional or neighbouring countries’ FDIs are averaging US$2,5 billion annually.
In 2014, Angola attracted US$16 billion in FDIs, while Mozambique followed with US$9 billion worth of investments.
South Africa attracted investments worth US$4, 8 billion, while Zambia was fourth with US$3,3 billion.