Online Reporter
INDUSTRY and the business community have called on the Government to come up with policies that reward or promote local production while discouraging importation of locally produced goods.
Most manufacturing companies have now increased capacity utilisation and some are in fact operating at full throttle.
Company representatives told Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu during a tour of Bulawayo companies recently that there was a need to come with deliberate policies that reward and promote local manufacture of products while discouraging importation of the same products.
Pump and Steel Supplies’ business development and brand manager Ms Linda Chikerema said there was an urgent need for Government to come up with policies that reward local production while discouraging imports.
She said her company’s production was directly aligned with national objectives such as import substitution, value addition, employment creation, industrial revival and steel value-chain integration hence its call for Government to support local production.
She said producing steel products locally meant retaining jobs, preserving skills and saving foreign currency.
Ms Chikerema said it was unfortunate that large volumes of finished steel and mining products are being imported yet her company and other local companies are producing the same products.
“These imports directly suppress factory utilisation, employment growth and return on private capital investment,” she said.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) Matabeleland Chapter past vice-president Mr Louis Herbst said Bulawayo has great manufacturing potential as it has the required skills, infrastructure and technical know-how.
He said this potential has, however, not translated into sustained industrial growth due to the operating environment.
Mr Herbst said while Government has made visible and commendable progress in addressing long-standing structural constraints, these have not been complemented by reforms at local level.
“In Bulawayo, many manufacturers and value adding enterprises continue to face administrative and regulatory challenges that raise the cost of doing business and slow down expansion,” he said.
Mr Herbst said multiple licensing requirements, rigid zoning rules and by-laws that have not kept pace with modern manufacturing and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) realities, create friction that undermines national progress.
He said there was a need to constantly review some of the by-laws in order to come up with regulations that protect public interests while actively enabling production and formalisation of businesses.
Bulawayo-based economist Mr Stevenson Dlamini concurred with Mr Herbst that Government has made significant progress in ensuring ease of doing business.
We want at this juncture to urge local authorities to promote the growth of manufacturing companies by coming up with reforms that complement Government efforts. Government on its part must continue to improve the ease of doing business environment.
Zimbabwe needs to derive maximum benefits from its natural resources and this is only possible when companies produce finished products.
