The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) said 16 March it had reduced Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) fees from 1,5 percent of project cost in an effort to improve the ease of doing business in Zimbabwe. In a statement, EMA said charges would now be based on a “sliding scale” with small impact projects paying a fee of $210, moderate impact projects paying 0,8 percent of project cost while high impact projects would pay one percent. Extremely high impact projects would pay 1,2 percent of the total project cost.

EMA said：“The new fee structure is aimed at boosting sustainable investment in the country as we endeavour to balance environmental, economic and social components in a growing green economy.”

In its latest update, consumer watchdog, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) said notable decrease was recorded in fuel which has been going down over the past few months following international oil prices which have also been on the downward trend. This has led to the price decrease of some commodities like sugar, fresh milk, laundry bar and cabbage.

“We assume that the above price decreases are necessitated by the reduction of fuel costs as more commodities are imported from outside the country. However, the increase in mealie-meal prices is due to importation costs and shortage of maize in the country,” said the consumer watchdog.

CCZ Matabeleland regional manager Mr Comfort Muchekeza said there was an urgent need for the Government to engage maize producing countries and purchase more to alleviate shortage of mealie-meal. He also said that prices of commodities have been gradually dropping since last year, one of the reasons being attributed to the fall of the South African rand in recent months. ”As a result of South Africa being our number one trading partner, the fall of that country’s currency made it cheaper for local wholesalers and retailers to an extent that the price drop was felt by consumers,” said Mr Muchekeza.

Farmers in Zimbabwe can now use the 99-year leases to borrow money from the banks after Government and bankers ironed out sticking points that made banks reluctant to accept the leases as security. The move, barring El Nino-induced drought, is expected to boost agricultural production and ensure maximum land utilisation.

In an interview yesterday, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Government and bankers had cleared outstanding issues and came up with a draft tradeable document.

”Boosting productivity is not a once-off thing. ”he said, since the agriculture sector was important as 70 to 90 percent of the population depended on the industry. He said Government was also in the process of remapping farms with financial support from the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme and the resources provided by Treasury. Government is also working to improve irrigation, value addition and macro-environment for the purpose to achieve a rapid and inclusive growth of the country.

Government of Zimbabwe is working on setting up a $10 billion compensation fund to settle disputes and bring closure to the fast-track land reform exercise. On Wednesday, MDC-T legislator Eddie Cross told the visiting IMF head of Delegation Domenico Fanizza that government was working on a commercial farm compensation fund. He said the comprehensive document was given to legislators on March 1. The document was inserted in legislators’ pigeonholes at Parliament. In an interview on Friday, Cross said legislators were given the document and that the compensation included land, improvements, immovable assets, cattle and tractors.

“The purpose of the fund is to provide resources for the payment of compensation to former farm owners whose farms were acquired by the state under the land reform programme and to enhance productivity on allocated land. The fund shall be administered by the secretary responsible for land and rural resettlement.” he said.

Lands and Rural Resettlement minister Douglas Mombeshora, however, said he was not aware of the document as he was not responsible for compensation, which falls under the purview of Treasury.

(Resource of picture: http://sztqb.sznews.com/html/2009-06/14/content_660372.htm)

Government( Zimbabwe) has cut financial support to some parastatals as part of the efforts to deal with pressures on the fiscus and to force rapid formulation and implementation of turnaround strategies by the State-owned entities, sources have said. While the actual number of the affected companies could not be ascertained, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has already communicated that position.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said it was time to put under those parastatals who were not performing well, and we should learn from the successful experience of Asian tigers economies which include China, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea to let the state-owned entities play a better role.