Cross-border traders call for doing business reforms
CROSS-border traders have implored the Government, through the relevant line ministries, to institute a number of reforms in their sector to improve the ease of doing business in their operations.
The Zimbabwe Cross-Border Traders Association (ZCBTA) secretary general Augustine Tawanda said ZCBTA appreciated the efforts by President Mnangagwa to grow the economy through the rallying call “Zimbabwe is open for business”.
Mr Tawanda said this has paid dividends through numerous mega projects and investments.
Given the extent to which large parts of Zimbabwe’s economy have informalised, cross-border trading provides livelihood to hundreds of thousands of families across the country, including youths and women.
However, Mr Tawanda said ZCBTA had reservations over the slow pace of response to some of the lobby group’s concerns, which continue to militate against operators in the cross-border trade.
ZCBTA, he said, would like to see a clear road map to facilitate transitioning from informality to formality for the informal economy in general.
“For cross-border traders in particular ZCBTA urges policy makers to urgently introduce sector-specific ease of doing business innovations such as bulk permits to increase exports driven by small-scale traders.
“We therefore call upon these critical ministries to urgently address the issues of ease of doing business for players in the informal economy including cross border traders,” he said.
ZCBTA said authorities need to respond to issues in the sector with similar urgency to requests by global capital and other multilateral institutions, given the sector’s potential to positively transform lives of the ordinary citizen.
The lobby group said it appeared “global capital is more readily listened to by policymakers and has the capacity to squeeze concessions as well as create self-serving commercial arrangements such as cartels and franchises to maximise profit”.
“In this regard, significant progress has been made to improve the ease of doing business for the big economic players, however, very little progress has been made at the microenterprise level,” Mr Tawanda said.
Mr Tawanda said ZCBTA was concerned that President Mnangagwa’s call for inclusivity through the mantras such as “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo” and “leaving no one and no place behind” was not receiving adequate support from some Government ministries.
“These ministries have resisted accepting recommendations presented by the affected constituencies such as cross-border traders to improve the ease of doing business as well as having their economic activities mainstreamed and captured on the national radar,” he said.
The cross-border traders, Mr Tawanda added, are also disturbed that most retail shops operating in the downtown areas of big cities, especially Harare, were owned by foreigners yet the retail sector should be the preserve of the indigenous Zimbabweans.
“While ZCBTA has no intention of pushing a xenophobic agenda it is concerned that there is no ideological consciousness on the part of some policymakers to tackle these issues as well as transform the lives of indigenous citizens through the development of people-centered policies and programmes,” he said.
ZCBTA urged socio-economic lobby groups to flag issues affecting them in their constituencies so that they can be addressed by the relevant authorities-herald
