Local industry has recorded tremendous success

At a recent meeting between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and business leaders, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya said the country spends an estimated $500 million per month on imports against exports of $400 million.

The shortfall of $100 million has, therefore, to be found from somewhere.

As a country, we spend $20 million each month on importing crude oil for the cooking oil sector. Currently, local content in cooking oil is less than 40 percent.

Similarly, the central bank also spends $16 million to import wheat.

We therefore spend $320 million over nine months on these raw materials. But some, if not most, of these raw materials can be produced locally.

Currently, our soya beans and wheat farmers only produce enough to last a maximum IN 2015, the country was in trouble, with a lot of CZI members considering to close shop.

However, with the gazetting of Statutory Instrument (SI) 64 of 2016, we actually saw a rapid turnaround of companies that were on the brink of collapse.

And after that, we saw companies such as Cairns, which had closed, opening.

This is true of other agro-processors as well. Growth in 2016 was 0,6 percent and in 2017, growth was 3,7 percent, which

Put simply, a Local Content Policy is a structured programme - based on comparative and competitive advantages - to use local raw materials in select value chains in the production of various goods and services for local and export markets.

There is definitely a difference between a trade measure such as SI 122 and a Local Content Policy.

A trade measure seeks to manage imports, while a policy designed to promote local production and consumption is much broader, internally focused and long-term.

In a world that has become increasingly interdependent, local content policies have become necessary and relevant because countries that have nothing to trade risk being impoverished.

Although globalisation creates bigger markets, it is a double-edged sword.

Delta Beverages, the country’s biggest represents a significant improvement.

Government projects growth of 6,3 percent this year, which is a remarkable figure considering where we came from.

We believe that this growth has been partly as a result of SI 64 and SI122. These instruments had a positive impact on various sectors. We actually believe that the full impact of the success of these statutes was about to be fully realised.

This success has been particularly felt in terms of employment growth because our figures show us that the entire industrial sector has a total of 800 000 people who are employed, a figure last achieved in 1968. This shows the level of progress we have made.

Although we have been facing challenges, our industry was recording its best performance in 50 years. To buttress this point, the growth rate of 6,3 percent shows that the economy is actually set to be one of the best performing economies in Southern Africa in the current year.

We believe it’s partly because of these statutes which allowed industries to grow.

This is why we were concerned by its (SI 122) suspension. However, we do understand why Government had to suspend it.

Although we support the measure, we believe that it should not go beyond December 21. We believe that Government should allow us to source foreign currency to fund local manufactures so that they can start to provide adequate goods and products.

Meeting the President

We were quite happy to participate in that meeting. It ensures that there is close communication and collaboration between Government and business, because it is the private sector that is going to grow this economy to the middle-income status that we expect to achieve in 2030. Such meetings enable both sectors - that is, Government and private sector - to communicate directly about challenges. This means we can face all impediments together as we drive towards Vision 2030.

We are happy that His Excellency said we should meet more than twice a year.

We now believe that we should meet every quarter and this will enable us to clear any barriers affecting our achievement of the particular targets we would have set for ourselves.

Sifelani Jabangwe