Online Reporter
Nelson Gahadza
Senior Business Reporter
INDUSTRY and Commerce Minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu has challenged businesses to take a more active role in combating counterfeit products, as Government and industry intensify preparations for increased festive-season demand.
Speaking after a quarterly engagement with business member organisations, Minister Ndlovu said continuous dialogue between Government and the private sector remained critical in addressing emerging challenges and sustaining the manufacturing sector’s growth trajectory.
The meeting, which brought together a broad spectrum of industry representative associations and organisations, also focused on competitiveness, the cost of doing business, policy coordination and preparations for Zimbabwe’s increased participation in regional and continental trade.
Minister Ndlovu said the engagement was particularly important as the Government prepares to receive the State of the Industry Report, which will help shape policy interventions aimed at supporting industrial growth.
“We have established this routine engagement platform where every quarter I meet with industry. More importantly, this one was to just polish up our consultations as we are about to present the State of the Industry Report to Government,” he said.
The Minister said industry was optimistic about the economic outlook and the performance of the manufacturing sector, which he described as the largest contributor to gross domestic product.
“Industry is quite excited, in fact, bullish about the economy, and the performance of the manufacturing sector, which is the largest contributor to GDP – and they are raring to go,” Minister Ndlovu said.
However, he said more needed to be done to improve the competitiveness of local companies, particularly by reducing the cost of inputs that could be produced domestically.
“I challenged them to look at ways in which we can address the high input bill of what can be manufactured locally, and we’ll be looking at ways in which this can be done,” he said.
While acknowledging progress made in improving the operating environment, Minister Ndlovu said the cost of doing business remained a concern and required continued attention if local companies were to compete effectively in regional and international markets.
“While acknowledging the progress that has been made, they still highlight that there is more that can still be done so that we are competitive and can go into the region and beyond,” he said.
The Minister expects manufacturing activity to strengthen in the final quarter of the year, traditionally the busiest period for many businesses because of increased consumer spending during the festive season.
“We expect that the last quarter will actually do very well. Naturally, the fourth quarter is our best quarter,” he said.
However, increased demand also brings heightened risks, particularly from counterfeit and smuggled products entering the market.
“With the festive season coming, demand is very high, but we have also seen a surge in counterfeit products as well as in some goods. We discussed that at length,” Minister Ndlovu said.
He urged manufacturers and brand owners to work more closely with Government agencies in identifying and removing counterfeit goods from the market, arguing that businesses were best placed to identify fake products.
“Industry should also come up with mechanisms for helping the Government address this, because it is the primary responsibility of the owner of the product to protect it,” he said.
Minister Ndlovu said existing legislation empowers brand owners to report counterfeit products and facilitate their confiscation.
“The law actually empowers the owner of the product to make sure that they report and that they can cause the confiscation of all the counterfeit goods in the market, because they know their products better than anyone,” he said.
Confiscation and enforcement, he said, would be more effective if businesses were continuously equipped with information and linked to relevant Government agencies responsible for market surveillance and enforcement.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) chief executive officer Ms Sekai Kuvarika said the engagement was important in ensuring that Government and business remained aligned on policies required to sustain the economy’s growth momentum.
She said discussions centred on opportunities and challenges confronting industry, as well as policy issues that could be considered in the upcoming national budget.
“We were looking at both opportunities and some of the challenges that may need to be addressed in order to continue on the growth path that we have experienced in the past year, and also to begin to flag some of the issues that the budget may need to consider,” she said.
Ms Kuvarika said policy coordination across Government ministries was identified as a key issue, given the interconnected nature of industrialisation, agriculture, energy and fiscal policy.
“We are looking at policies and policy strategy issues, and policy coordination across the various sector policies that interact with the Minister of Industry,” Ms Kuvarika said.
She said industry also needed to prepare for greater participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), with competitiveness becoming increasingly important as Zimbabwean companies access regional and continental markets.
“We discussed some of the emerging opportunities in terms of what would drive our growth in the different sectors. And, of course, the issue of competitiveness remains on the table,” she said.
Ms Kuvarika said the private sector had a responsibility to complement the Government’s efforts in fighting counterfeits by actively monitoring the market and using existing legal provisions.
The meeting also considered smuggling, with industry calling for policy measures that eliminate incentives for illegal imports and strengthen the competitiveness of locally produced goods.
“We also discussed the issues of smuggled products entering the country and what policy measures could be put in place to ensure that incentives for smuggling are eliminated,” she said.
