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Conrad Mwanawashe : Business Reporter

REFORMS aimed at improving the doing business environment in the construction and property clusters will build confidence and enhance economic activities in the sub-sectors. This came out at the technical committee meeting on information dissemination for the construction permits and property registration clusters on Tuesday.The doing business reforms touch a number of issues under the clusters from reducing the number of days for the processing of construction permits and registration of properties.

“The moment we build confidence in the property sector, there will be increased investment into the sector. Government will reap benefits as a result of increased investment in the sector in the form of fees and stamp duties that will be levied on registered properties. It will also enhance economic activities in the country,” said Elizabeth Nyagura, deputy chief registrar for the Department of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property.

The Department of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property is under the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. Ms Nyagura was addressing stakeholders at the publicity workshop in her capacity as the Team leader for the technical committee meeting on information dissemination for the construction permits and property registration clusters.

Stakeholders at the meeting noted that Zimbabwe should maintain the reform momentum and implement further rapid results initiatives in order to fare better on the World Bank ease of doing business measurement.

The country currently ranks number 155 out of 189 economies on the World Bank Doing Business index of 2015 and this is below the regional average for sub-Saharan Africa which is at 143.

Regional counterparts such as Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Lesotho rank better at 72, 73, 101 and 114 respectively. On dealing with construction permits the World Bank Doing index ranks Zimbabwe at 185 and registering property at 114.

“The ranking of our regional counterparts clearly demonstrate that we need to do more to improve our investment climate,” Local Government and Public Works Ministry permanent secretary George Mlilo said in a speech read on his behalf.

He said Government remains committed to streamlining various processes to improve operations in several ministries, departments and agencies.

Some of the initiatives Government is taking include reducing the number of days it takes to dispose of construction permits and registration of property.

“All entities in the construction permits and property registration clusters should ensure that they harmonise their processes so that we reduce the number of days to get a construction permit from 448 days to 120 days by May 13, 2016 and reduce the number of days to register a property from 49 days to 16 days,” said Eng Mlilo.

To enhance the initiatives, stakeholders in the two clusters have established a One-Stop-Shop Quick Building plan Approval Process. Ms Nyagura said the One-Stop-Shop for building plan approvals, based at the City of Harare, brings together all the departments that are involved in building plans within council, the Environmental Management Agency and National Social Security.

“They deliberate on the applications for building plans that would have been submitted. The approval is done there and then so it actually reduced the time frame for approving building plans,” said Ms Nyagura.

Streamlined procedures include reducing time frames for procedures before each entity; developing checklist for each entity and developing work flow process maps for each entity.

The plan is to complete the registration process within 14 days instead of 36 days.

The meeting brought together stakeholders from the Office of the President and Cabinet, Local Government and Public Works, City of Harare, Real Estate Institute of Zimbabwe, Institute of Architects Zimbabwe, EMA among other institutions.