“As business, we commend ZIMRA for the hard work and tremendous strategic initiatives in revenue collection aimed at enhancing the country’s efforts for successful economic revival.” This was said by the President of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), Mr Obert Sibanda, at the occasion of ZIMRA’s stakeholders’ breakfast meeting that was held on April 22, 2010 in Bulawayo.”
I feel greatly honoured to stand before you as Guest of
Honour to this important stake-holders breakfast
meeting, which has become a permanent feature of
ZITF business, courtesy of our hosts, the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority.
We come together for this grand occasion during the
ZITF 2010 as we seek ways of working together as
industry and ZIMRA, to unlock our investment potential
as a nation focused on charting a new path for
enhanced development.
I am grateful to ZIMRA for inviting me to be guest of
honour at this stake-holders breakfast meeting, which
I strongly believe presents a wonderful opportunity for
business to forge synergies with the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority in striving to equip the national
treasury with adequate resources effective for
government operations.
As business, we commend ZIMRA for the hard work
and tremendous strategic initiatives in revenue
collection aimed at enhancing the country’s efforts for
successful economic revival.
Latest reports on financial resources coming through
the various tolling points nationwide reveal the practical
hard work that ZIMRA has invested to spearhead
national development projects persuading all
Zimbabweans to participate meaningfully.
The partnership between business and ZIMRA is
undoubtedly a strong base of influence in the quest for
success of the government-initiated resource
mobilisation strategy.
Let us be challenged to be bound together by shared
expertise and passion for the joint enterprise of
unlocking our investment potential. As business we
value innovation and knowledge sharing and it is to our
advantage to create conditions for a partnership with
the revenue authority to flourish.
Strategic engagements of this nature and stature are
set to take the nation to greater heights and the
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority deserves all the praise
for being a leading Trojan horse in arranging this kind
of Stakeholders Breakfast Meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is at business relationship
frameworks such as this Stakeholders Breakfast
Meeting where we get to engage in constructive
dialogue to solve many of challenging problems which
neither business nor ZIMRA can solve individually.
• Critically, this interaction helps us to:
o identify salient problems;
o develop shared interpretations of the current
prevailing situation in Zimbabwe
o generate joint frameworks to find long lasting
solutions and eventually control the situation.
• It is at this juncture that I am reminded of the
motivation by the World Customs Organisation
Secretary General Mr Kunio Mikuriya that we must
stand together as business and the revenue
administration authority, as there is no alternative
other than cooperation between all those involved in
international trade - this is the key to development and
the engine which drives the global economy forward in
these early years of the 21st
Century.
• The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, has
been closely monitoring the continuing crisis of the
world economy and is determined to stay vigilant
against any efforts that may undermine the vital
endeavour to unlock the investment potential for
Zimbabwe.
• Allow me to remind you that it is time for us to
aggressively improve performance and constructively
search for lasting partnerships with ZIMRA for the
benefit and development of the nation. Together, with
hope and resolve, we are capable of widening a
ground-breaking and vigorous approach to face the
challenges ahead.
• The future for us as a nation is intricately interwoven
and rests squarely on our drive to forge impermeable
alliances as business and the revenue authority.
• I would like to take this opportunity to commend
ZIMRA for making it much easier for business to meet
its tax obligations by opening additional revenue
accounts with the various compliant financial
institutions in the country.
• Ladies and gentlemen, ZIMRA, in its quest to improve
service delivery and ultimately bring convenience to
business, has opened revenue accounts with the
following banks: BancABC, FBC, Kingdom,
Metropolitan, NMB, Premier and Tetrad.
• Ladies and gentlemen, that this is in addition to the
revenue accounts already held with CBZ, ZB and
Standard Chartered Bank.
• Please join me distinguished invited guests, in giving a
huge round of applause to the Zimbabwe Revenue
Authority for opening up lines of smooth partnership
with the taxpayer.
• Ladies and gentlemen, I urge ZIMRA to develop a
systematic and deliberate strategy to engage strategic
constituencies in the business community, particularly the
large taxpayers, and focus on sound inter-organisational
relationships in a bid to easily motivate voluntary
cooperation in remitting our country’s dearly needed
revenue.
• Let us be motivated to form sound inter-organisational
relationships with the hope to reduce risk and uncertainty
as organisations link up with other players in industry to
improve their material and information resource bases to
effective decision-making and implementation of action
plans.
• Business, let me reiterate, should be urged to remain
geared towards working in close partnership with ZIMRA
for us to unlock our investment potential.
• ZIMRA, I urge you to continuously scan the environment
under which you are operating and fight to deal with all
the challenges, especially those raised by the various
stakeholders and clients. Vices like corruption, smuggling,
tax evasion and indifferent attitude towards work should
be dealt with using a zero-tolerance approach.
• Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make a proposal for
our relationship as business and ZIMRA highlighting five
characteristics that must influence our performance and
effectiveness in our partnership i.e.
o compatibility to have the relationship
o capabilities to bring to the relationship
o commitment to the relationship
o allowing control in the relationship and
o trust in the relationship
• On that note I trust that this Stakeholders Breakfast
Meeting will bear fruit as we engage constructively and
strive towards unlocking our investment potential now
and in the future.
I thank you.