THE Ministry of Industry and Commerce is set to launch a new blueprint aimed at addressing bottlenecks choking the growth of the local manufacturing sector.
The blueprint, the Zimbabwe Industrial Reconstruction and Growth Plan 2024-2025, will be launched soon, according to Industry and Commerce minister Nqobizitha Ndlovu.
An earlier report released this year by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries revealed that Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector contribution to GDP declined to 9% last year from a peak of 23% between 1980 and 1989.
The decline in the sector’s contribution can be attributed to the high cost of doing business, foreign currency shortages to import raw materials, incessant daily power cuts leading to reduced production, bureaucracy bottlenecks, policy inconsistency and a dip in local and foreign financing options.
Further, manufacturers have complained about a heavy tax and fee regime.
“Yes, we will be launching it (the blueprint) in few weeks’ time, my team is working on it. It is unfortunate that we are having a conference, but we are trying to find the best possible time, probably in the next few weeks,” Ndlovu told NewsDay Business.
“The idea is that we need a robust industrial development policy, which is a transition as you cannot have an industrial policy that is not aligned to the national development strategy. So, we decided that we will then use this opportunity to address a number of housekeeping issues that are affecting industry while we work on a very robust policy that will engage throughout next year.”
The minister, said the new plan’s main thrust is to address immediate challenges in the manufacturing and commercial sectors while laying a foundation for accelerated industrial development under the Zimbabwe National Industrial Development Policy 2.
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It seeks to tackle various economic problems such as the influx of smuggled and counterfeit goods, improving the ease of doing business, enhancing linkages between large corporations and SMEs, and addressing infrastructure and utility concerns, such as electricity and water supply.
The plan also focuses on bilateral and multilateral engagements with organisations like the African Continental Free Trade Area, Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa.
“Now, the reconstruction and growth plan itself has got two major focus areas. The first one, is what we have termed the 'commerce sectors' which we believe are constraining the growth of our industry,” Ndlovu said.
“For instance, the rate of informalisation that we are seeing in the economy. We will be, through the plan, taking stern measures to try and address informalisation. A number of strategies will be implemented, including making sure that we simplify registration processes.”
On the heavy tax and regulatory burdens faced by SMEs, Ndlovu said the blueprint will explore ways to alleviate these challenges, adding his vision was for SMEs to have bank accounts and point, of sale machines to widen consumers , payment options.
