Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika
Senior Reporter
THE Ministry of Industry and Commerce is targeting to grow the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the country’s Gross Domestic Product to US$11 billion by 2030 from the current US$6,8 billion.
This was said by Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu during a consultative meeting with the Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce on the Zimbabwe National Industrial Development Policy 2 (ZNIDP2) which the ministry is currently crafting.
The minister said it was important to interrogate the absolute value of the manufacturing sector to the GDP.
“The manufacturing sector, when we did our ZNIDP 1 between 2018 and 2019, its contribution, its value was sitting at around US$2,2 billion, but by the end of ZNIDP1, it was close to US$5 billion. It had almost doubled.
“That’s the value of the manufacturing sector. When you look at the re-based value of the manufacturing sector, which is sitting at 15,3 percent of GDP, which GDP is around US$45 billion, it would give you a manufacturing contribution of US$6,8 billion to US$6,9 billion,” Minister Ndlovu said.
He added: “Now, if we are saying by 2030, our contribution to GDP should be around 20 percent. NDS2 envisages a GDP of around US$55 billion by 2030, this is a conservative growth rate. That is the highlight of US$55 billion. What it means is that the manufacturing sector by 2030 should be sitting at plus or minus US$11 billion.”
He said in the first decade of independence, the manufacturing sector contributed between 22 and 24 percent to the GDP and dropped to around 21 percent in the second decade.
“The third decade saw a sharp decline of the manufacturing sector contribution to GDP going down to around 18 percent,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu, however, said while the proportion of the manufacturing sector to the GDP has been declining due to the growth in the mining and agricultural sectors, the value of the manufacturing sector contribution has grown.
“But I want to qualify this statement before we misunderstand it. It is the proportion of what the manufacturing sector contributes to the global GDP (that has been declining).
“Now, if you remember, our agriculture has grown quite substantial, but the mining sector has been the fastest growing.
“The mining sector before largely excluded our people and it is a policy of around 2014, 2015, and accelerated by the Second Republic that has seen the small to medium scale miners contributing, especially in the gold mining sector, contributing more than the big mining companies.
“So that will also reflect in the contribution of the mining sector to the global GDP,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said the ongoing ease of doing business reforms currently being implemented by Government including reduction and scrapping of some compliance and regulatory levies and fees will encourage more investments into the manufacturing sector.
He also said the banning of raw exports of some minerals like lithium would promote local value addition and growth of the local manufacturing industry.
