UN commission for Africa commends Zimbabwe industrial policy

THE United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Uneca) has commended the Government for reviewing the Zimbabwe National Industrial Development Policy (ZNIDP), saying this will aid in aligning it to the regional policies and bring competitiveness which will assist in penetrating and promoting regional value chains.

The ZNIDP is the principal policy that drives the industrialisation agenda of a country.

The 2024-2030 policy will succeed the currently-running industrial blueprint, which was operationalised in 2019 and reigning up to December 2023.

The 2024-2030 policy intends to facilitate growth, productivity improvement, transformation and competitiveness through accelerating investment in Zimbabwe’s industrial sector.

It aims to attain a manufacturing sector growth rate of at least two percent per annum, to grow manufacturing sector investment by three percent per annum and to increase manufactured exports by 10 percent per annum.

The policy is earmarked to increase the share of manufacturing value added (MVA) in GDP to 20 percent by 2030, while growing the share of manufacturing employment total to 20 percent by the same year.

The draft policy is informed by Vision 2030, the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), as well as regional and international policies on industrialisation.

Speaking at a stakeholder validation workshop on the draft ZNIDP in Bulawayo recently, Economic Commission Africa economic affairs officer Dr Oliver Maponga, standing in for UN Resident Coordinator Edward Kallon, said despite the challenges experienced during the old policy, many success stories have been noticed, which include the growth in industrial capacity utilisation.

He said distortion of the global supply chain by Covid-19, power shortages and economic challenges such as inflation affected the outcome of the policy which expires at the end of the year.

“We are supporting the Government to draft the ZNIDP 2024-2030. The successor policy is fully informed by experiences from the old policy in terms of what have been the challenges.

“The new policy takes on emerging issues including the national nature focusing on national development framework but also regional experiences as well, as a member of Sadc, Comesa and state member to the AfCTA, those are elements that are key as we structure the policy,” he said.

“Zimbabwe operates in a regional space where there are regional opportunities, exploitation of regional value chains for example requires us to recalibrate our policy to speak to the policies of other counties within the region,” he said.

“On the AfCTA, there has to be competitiveness, you have to produce products that are competitive, so value addition, beneficiation remain central to Zimbabwe’s industrial strategy going forward. We need to capacitate micro, small and medium enterprises to be able to compete.”

Dr Maponga said one of the major shortcomings of the current policy was the lack of an implementation framework that impacted programmes as there was no set strategy to track progress.

In remarks made on her behalf by the industrial development director in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Mr Dayford Nhema, Permanent Secretary Dr Mavis Sibanda said the Government will continue to fund the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) saying that industrial finance is a key element in the industrialization of the economy.

The IDCZ is a strategic state entity whose role in the economy is to add value through industrial processes and capital formation (foreign direct investment) to create wealth, employment and industrial development in Zimbabwe.

Dr Sibanda said the manufacturing sector has a myriad of investment opportunities, especially in the value addition of raw materials.

“Industrial finance is a key element in the industrialisation of our economy. Government will continue to support the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) in its role as a development finance institution. To complement these efforts, the ministry will also seek funding opportunities from cooperation partners,” said Dr Sibanda.

“There is a need to resuscitate closed companies or establish new ones. For instance, the country used to produce 17 million pairs of shoes a year, however, the leather sector fell into a number of challenges.

“Production has now started to increase and we are now at 1 million pairs a year. We need active participation in industry. This can be achieved by leveraging on our natural resources and strengthening our vibrant youth to be competitive and innovative in their entrepreneurial enterprises,” she said.

“Our youth should play a bigger role in employment creation and innovation by venturing into manufacturing.”

Talking about the draft ZNIDP (2024-2030) she said it will also advance the uptake of green industry initiatives that can drive sustainable economic growth and provide environmental benefits.

She said in order to successfully implement and monitor this policy, they firmly believe that a private sector-led approach is essential.

Dr Sibanda said the Government is committed to forging robust public-private partnerships that will ensure efficient implementation, rigorous monitoring, and timely evaluation of the policy’s progress and impact.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the local industry witnessed a 56,1 percent increase in capacity utilisation in 2022 from 47 percent in 2020.

Shelf-space occupancy of locally-produced products also grew to over 80 percent last year from 55 percent in 2021.

Exports of manufactured products surged to US$366 million last year from US$324 million in 2021, translating to a 12, 9 percent improvement. — @SikhulekelaniM1