‘Craft policies that spur industrial growth’

They said Government should create a conducive environment that attracts investment and that gives room to growing and up-and-coming businesses.
In an interview, an economist from Kingdom Holdings, Mr Witness Chinyama, said most policies by the Government were meant for the revival of the local industry though some changes were necessary in some areas.
“Policies are good but at the moment there is a great need for privatisation of parastatals like Zesa since some parastatals are heavily inconveniencing operations of most businesses.
“Business is all about good service and availability of raw materials needed for production hence the need for parastatals to be efficient,” he said.
He said duty was another burning issue in business as it wasn’t good if imposed on supplementary products that the country could not produce at the moment.
“At the moment the country cannot produce raw materials for production, so imposing duty on such products will negatively affect the growth of local industries since they are depending on those exports.
“Duty should be imposed on goods that are available and adequate on our local markets so as to promote competitiveness as imported goods are usually cheaper which makes them popular yet local companies cannot adopt such prices due to very high production costs.”
He said for successful implementation of any policy, there would be a critical need for close cooperation within and between other relevant Government departments in the departments that affect industry.
“Issues that affect industry such as utilities and infrastructure must be addressed because business activities revolve around that.
“Industrialisation requires that the country pursue measures that ensure a strong and reliable supply base, particularly on electricity, coal, and fuel,” he said.
He said problems such as continued absence of credit lines, power shortages and duty on raw materials needed to be addressed by the Government so as to boost local industry.
He, however, said though the principle of import substitution was sometimes viewed in a retrogressive manner, it was meant to protect local industries.
“Import substitution is seen as negative in that it is viewed as being counter to the central tenets of globalisation, but the situation in Zimbabwe demands that we rely on it to offer temporary protection for our industry to counter the surge in the disruptive imports of cheap and dumped goods which can easily be produced locally,” he said.
On the same issue, an economist with Ball Joint Mr Ephraim Makara said Government should put in place policies that are favourable for the growth of local industries.
“The policy environment is quite good at the moment but of all the policies that the Government put in place, a consideration on the effect to industry and its progress is a must.
“Continuing with duty, for example, will only slow down the growth of industry since we are currently depending on other countries for raw materials,” he said.
He said what Zimbabwe needed at the moment was to work towards building of relationships with other countries because they were useful also for the turnaround of the country’s economy.
“As an economy, we are cash-strapped and we could do with some help from those developed economies,” he said.
He called on companies to be independent and have initiative rather that be cry babies who are always looking up to Government for assistance.
“In this kind of economy those people who are always ready to go out of their way by extensively investing and working upon the growth of their businesses make it,” he said.
He, however, complained that Bulawayo was failing to get back to its feet as more companies were closing down.
“Small companies and some big ones are keeping on relocating or closing shop which makes some businesses lose confidence to invest in the city,” Mr Makara said.