May 14 deadline for SEZ owners

ZIMBABWE Investment and Development Agency (Zida) has given owners of areas designated as Special Economic Zones (SEZs), including in Bulawayo, up to May 14 to institute the process of appointing developers and operators of their respective SEZs as it seeks to speed up operationalisation process.

Bulawayo is one of the areas that the Government designated for the implementation of SEZs initiative to restore the city’s former glory as the country’s industrial hub.

Zida is the Government’s investment promotion agency, responsible for facilitating domestic and foreign investment in the country.

Zida offers incentives to investors and undertakes all that makes Zimbabwe a safe investment destination.

It co-ordinates investment projects by taking advantage of existing national synergies. The agency provides a one-stop shop investment centre that facilitates, licences and operationalise investments.

The establishment of Zida is one of the success stories of the New Dispensation’s economic reforms aimed at rejuvenating the productive sector and creating more jobs.

The grand plan is to realise an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

In its 2023 fourth quarter report, the agency said Bulawayo’s Belmont, Donnington, Kelvin and Westondale designated as an SEZ has four licensed investors.

Three of the zones, Arenel (Private) Limited, Shepco BMA Fastening (Private) Limited and Eagletron International (Private) Limited are operational.

ZImbabwe Investment and Development Agency

Chingases Zimbabwe Private Limited is non-operational.

The report further notes that at the end of 2023, there were five publicly owned SEZs — Masuwe SEZ in Victoria Falls with Masuwe Joint Management Committee, Mosi oa Tunya Development Company being the responsible authority.

Another SEZ is Imvumela SEZ in Bulawayo under the local authority, Fernhill SEZ (Mutare Municipality), Beitbridge SEZ with Beitbridge Municipality as the response authority and Beitbridge and Sunway City SEZ in Ruwa.

In his report for the period under review, Zida chief executive Mr Tafadzwa Chinamo noted that the key highlight of the quarter, which had a projected investment value of $4,4 billion from 148 new licensed issued, was the promulgation of the Special Economic Zones and General Investments Regulations in November.

The Special Economic Zones Regulations, SI 226 of 2023 provides for the application procedure for Special Economic Zones and the General Investments Regulations, SI 227 of 2023 provides for the licensing procedure for general investment licenses.

“Following the promulgation of the SEZ regulations, the Agency is in the process of formulating strategies to hasten the operationalisation of designated SEZs to attract investment. The Agency has notified owners of areas designated as SEZs on the need to ensure that the zone owners institute the process of appointing Developers and Operators of their respective SEZs before the due date of 13 May 2024.

“As at 31 December 2023, there were 10 privately owned SEZs. Out of these 10, seven are business-specific/single entity SEZs while three can accommodate multi-investors,” he said.

A special economic zone is an area in a country that is subject to unique economic regulations that differ from other areas in the same country as its regulations tend to be conducive to attracting foreign direct investment.

Zimbabwe’s SEZs are being established to fulfil the following objectives, to restore the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services competitively, to create economies of scale good enough for the locator of the proposed SEZs to be internationally competitive, ensure inclusive growth emanating from the spread of growth nodes and diversified provincial offerings, maximise the economic benefits of a given geographical location and its stakeholders, and to attract more investment from the international community.

The report notes that since the agency’s inception in 2020, it has issued a total of 1 083 new licences and continues to put in place measures to improve investment attraction and facilitation in the form of investment promotion programs and improving its processes and procedures.

Added to that, since April 2023, the agency has been operating an online system for processing licence applications and handling investment inquiries.

This has contributed to an increase in the number of licensed investors where more projects were licensed in 2023 compared to 2022 every quarter and year to date.

Mr Chinamo further noted that the mining sector continued to draw the most investment, both in terms of number and projected investment value.

Projected investment value is the total amount committed by investors for a specific investment project as outlined in the application.

It represents the overall financial commitment made by various stakeholders to bring the project to fruition.

“In Q4 2023, 76 percent of the projected investment value for all licenses were issued in the mining sector.

“The two largest investments being, Ajako United (Pvt) Ltd with a project investment value of US$6,94 billion for mining, processing and trading of gold and other minerals including lithium, manganese and copper from its base in Harare and Innermost Resources Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd, US$1,4 billion towards mining and processing of gold in Penhalonga, Turk Mine and Kwekwe.

Money – Image taken from Pixabay

“The projects are expected to eventually contribute to increasing the country’s gold production from the current 200 tons to 300 tons per year by 2025.”

The report notes that last year, the agency managed to attract investors from 47 countries compared to 33 in 2022.

For the two years, China had the most investors with mining being their most preferred sector followed by manufacturing. However, Japan and Zimbabwe contributed the highest projected investment values in 2023. -chronicle