The Innovation of New Dry Ports in Zimbabwe: The Critical Success Factors (CSF) And Fault Lines

Abstract

This research is about, “The innovation of new dry ports in Zimbabwe: the Critical Success Factors (CSF) and fault lines.” Zimbabwe wanted to start four new dry ports across the country and researchers wanted to help by carrying out research on critical success factors to make these dry ports a success, based on success stories elsewhere, and avoid having another white elephant or disappointment. Researchers used the survey questionnaire method as well as face to face interviews, expert panel interviews at universities, observation and literature review in this research. Findings revealed that dry ports required total connectivity to strategic national institutions and corporates like warehouses, bonded warehouses, airports, Ministries, roads, Customs and Excise Department and railways, and these must all fully embrace e-government/smart supply chain and be strategically linked to all importers and exporters as well as critical trade and related government departments. This is a new concept in Zimbabwe but quite old elsewhere. Systems and institutions have improved a lot but still needed further improvement in Zimbabwe to march SADC/COMESA competitors like South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique. It was found that critical skills, ports, Customs and investment infrastructure in Zimbabwe needed to be improved as well as processing and turnaround time to match best practices in SADC/COMESA and globally. A One Stop Shop for investment was there but not fully operationalised to cover all transactions, is about partly operational. Delayed deliveries and wrong documentation were experienced sometimes due to port and Customs delays or transport and loading delays. Zimbabwe had made great strides no doubt and was marching on for stardom and big achievements. This paper is futuristic and will be mostly based on best practices globally which Zimbabwe can learn from and start successful dry ports that really add value to the national economy, and avoid toxic bottlenecks and cost overruns. It was time Zimbabwe started to seriously adopt smart blockchain technologies like South Africa to improve efficiencies and turnaround time. One of the biggest frustrations and costs in the value chain was customs delays, fuel shortages and power outages. Something must be done long-term to address these bottlenecks. Dry ports were just like any other business and were concerned about ease of doing business, national competitiveness, country of origin effect, and national image. A business was a business regardless of sector, as they all used the same benchmarks and standards, and deliverables were achievable in a conducive national business environment which generated maximum profits to shareholders and taxes to the government whilst creating thousands of jobs, giving a world-class logistics service, being a national prestige project, national pride and point of reference, giving wide product choice and prosperity to the nation, and operating with environmental protection and ethics in mind. Zimbabwean politicians, the population at large, NGOs, and industrialists needed to get this message as clear as possible.