Online Reporter
Sikhulekelani Moyo, Zimpapers Business Hub
The Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce has been urged to focus more on the industrialisation of the country, ensuring that the National Budget aligns with the industrialisation and reindustrialisation agenda.
The call was made by Speaker of Parliament, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, on Saturday while officiating a two-day capacity-building workshop on Budget Analysis for four portfolio committees: Industry and Commerce, Mines and Mining Development, Transport and Infrastructure Development, and Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
“For the Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce, your constitutional oversight extends to ensuring that budget allocations adequately support industrial development, manufacturing competitiveness and commercial sector growth,” he said.
“You must rigorously scrutinise whether the allocations align with the constitutional industrial objectives as enshrined in section 13 of the Constitution and contribute to achieving value addition targets. Furthermore, your analysis should systematically track manufacturing output growth, industrial capacity utilisation, export diversification progress, and the effectiveness of industrial incentive schemes in creating sustainable economic transformation.”
Adv Mudenda said the committee should strive to improve capacity utilisation to around 75 to 80 percent.
In an interview, Industry and Commerce Portfolio Committee chairperson Mr Clemence Chiduwa said Parliamentarians must understand the Budget process, which is a planning tool used to convert the aspirations of the people into initiatives aligned with the country’s development agenda.
“We have also spoken about the issue of industrialisation, especially focusing on rural industrialisation and the reindustrialisation of Bulawayo, taking it back to its former glory as an industrial hub. As a committee, we will achieve this through the budget proposals that we are going to present and the policy proposals we are going to examine,” said Mr Chiduwa.
“In line with what came out at the Mid-Term Budget Review, more than 76 percent of our economy is informal, and Parliamentarians have proposed the need to formalise our economy. This is in sync with the National Development Strategy 1 and the upcoming NDS 2, with all these taking us to an upper middle-income economy by 2030. As MPs, we have been equipped with tools to understand revenue measures that will balance what we want to achieve as a country, ensuring that businesses continue to thrive.”
