Four-step plan to revive Bulawayo industries

INDUSTRIALISTS in Bulawayo have identified four strategic intervention areas that require urgent government attention and financing to guarantee the successful revival of industries and job creation.

Once the country's manufacturing hub, Bulawayo has suffered closure and relocation of close to 100 firms in the last decade resulting in loss of jobs for thousands of workers.

Industry and Commerce Deputy Minister Chiratidzo Mabuwa, who held week-long closed door meetings with business representatives in the city, told Business Chronicle on Friday that Bulawayo was on the recovery path but admitted more work needs to be done to buttress on-going efforts to assist firms.

She said company executives were clear on what they wanted and gave recommendations that the government should attend to.

"The businesses just asked for four things - re-engineering of the Cold Storage Company (CSC), sprucing up of the rail and road network, quick re-opening of New-Zimsteel and scaling up the textile and clothing industry," said Mabuwa.

"They said these were key areas for revival, which have the potential of creating more employment and boosting operations of downstream industries."

The Deputy Minister said businesses were keen to embrace modern production technology after realising that some firms closed because of obsolete and outdated machinery.

She said city businesses, through their different associations, have crafted two major business plans that would be submitted to government but would not be drawn to disclose the details of the plans.

The plans are likely to dovetail with ideals of the much anticipated declaration of Bulawayo as a special economic zone, a major economic policy thrust under the government's five year development plan, Zim-Asset.

Mabuwa said she was assigned by her boss Mike Bimha to have quiet and thorough engagement with industry with a view of coming up with priority projects and scaling up revival efforts.

She said the revival of Bulawayo was certain and pledged the government's commitment in tackling inherent bottlenecks that stifle growth.

"We're a dollarised economy and can't devaluate the currency hence the need to address tariff barriers, fine-tuning of  our laws and policies by coming up with enabling statutory instruments," Mabuwa added.

She said she held several meetings with business executives from different  sectors such as clothing and textile, pharmaceuticals, leather, metals and electrical, judicial managers and regional ministry staff.

Mabuwa also conducted visits to different companies and described the industry situation as "encouraging".

"Bulawayo is ready to go and the industries there are doing something.  It's not fair to depict Bulawayo as a dying city. There are a lot of positive developments.

"We only need to conscientise people to support local industry to curb imports. We recommend that all businesses reserve a certain percentage in their shops for local products, just like what supermarkets are doing," she said.

Surveys have shown that Zimbabwe's competitiveness was compromised by high cost drivers such as power, water, tariffs, labour, tax, licence fees, transport and technology costs.

The government has already responded by setting up a Cabinet committee to look at ways of enhancing ease of doing business in Zimbabwe and boosting local product competitiveness.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor John Mangudya has weighed  in by calling on businesses to cut prices to contain costs and curb the pressure for increasing salaries by ensuring that   workers get more value for the money they earn.