RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya has said 2016 is going to be a transformative year for the country following the introduction of new investment guidelines which are “flexible and user friendly”.
This comes after the Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa and his Empowerment counterpart Patrick Zhuwao announced at a joint press conference Monday that they had agreed on the frame work, guidelines and procedures on how to move forward with implementation of the country’s Indigenisation Policy.
The policy forces foreign firms to cede to locals 51 percent of their Zimbabwe operations and has been blamed for poor foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country.  
“It (ministers’ agreement) means we have to transform our economy; it is an important aspect in the economics of Zimbabwe in promoting investment in the country,” said Mangudya.
“Investment is not only foreign investment; we are talking about both domestic and foreign and they are all needed.
“In fact, if an economy has more domestic investment it means we keep more money in the economy and to me what the ministers presented, if you see them they are user friendly, very flexible and that’s why there are two pathways of compliance and we do not expect any person to complaint end of the day.”  
Mangudya added that Zimbabwe desperately needed investment, increased production and employment to increase fiscal space and liquidity in the economy.   
The frame works provided by the two ministries now provides for two possible pathways for ensuring compliance with the empowerment laws.Advertisement