Manufacturing sector on the rebound: Nzenza

TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO

Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector is on the rebound with locally manufactured goods  dominating retailers’ shelves, Industry and Commerce minister Sekai Nzenza has said.

Nzenza, who spoke at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair,  which ended last Saturday, said the re-awakening of the local manufacturing sector was critical in assisting Zimbabwe to substitute imports and taming the historic trade deficits.

“We have been importing what we could make ourselves. As the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, our strategy which is aligned and defined by the National Development Strategy 1 focuses on moving up those value chains,” Nzenza said.

“With the President’s (Emmerson Mnangagwa) ‘s vision, our aim is to bring value to the natural products that we have. This is what we are calling the import substitution and developing the local content policy focusing on what we have and using the innovation to develop those products and manufacture them.

“We developed strategies. You may recall we came here 18 months ago to launch the leather value chains strategy. We also launched the pharmaceutical strategy and among all these value chains for the motor vehicle strategy. Also within the agro processing framework we are looking at the cotton to clothing strategy and soya beans.

Nzenza said the private sector plays a critical role  in shaping the economic climate.

“We used to import a lot. But that has changed as our manufacturing industry is on the rebound.

We talk of the private sector led growth. The role of the government in this case is to ensure that we have consistent policies to enable the ease of doing business,” she said.