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Bulawayo is now attracting significant investment after its designation as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), but the new industries may not mirror the city’s industrial past, Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndhlovu said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Strategic Planning and Review Workshop in Bulawayo on Friday, Minister Ndlovu said the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) is operationalising Bulawayo’s SEZ status.
“What I know is that Bulawayo has been designated a special economic zone for years now. And ZIDA has been dealing with how to tailor-make the incentives and support mechanisms just to make sure that industries in Bulawayo can fully explore these benefits,” he said.
“I’m able to say that it is because of these pronouncements that we have begun receiving huge investments into Bulawayo. People need to accept that the new industry in Bulawayo might not necessarily be the same as the industry of yesterday.”
The minister said he will next week visit some of the new factories that have come into Bulawayo to assess progress.
“From a manufacturing perspective alone, Bulawayo 2025 to 2026 would have received not less than US$100 million in investments. This is very new,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said people underestimate the progress delivered by the Second Republic, citing the growth of the manufacturing sector.
“Let me give you one example of the manufacturing sector. The manufacturing sector in 2018 was valued at around US$3,7 billion.
“We had projected that by 2025 it would close at US$5 billion. So, we were projecting over five years, close to 8 percent growth.
“By the end of 2025, the manufacturing sector had reached US$8,2 billion,” he said.
He contrasted the current performance with the economy at Independence.
“By the time we got our independence, the GDP of this country, the entire economy of Zimbabwe as we inherited it from Rhodesia, from Smith, when you hear a manufacturing sector contributing 25 percent, that economy was worth US$6,65 billion. The manufacturing sector alone today is worth US$8,2 billion,” he said.
“We projected it would have surpassed US$12 billion by the time we get to 2030. We have more than doubled the value of the manufacturing sector in six years. And we expect that the GDP of this country by 2030 will have surpassed US$100 billion.”
Minister Ndlovu said the industrial base has fundamentally changed from the old Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO) – anchored system.
