The Sunday Mail
Sifelani Jabangwe
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 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.
An important point that came out of this meeting was the suggestion to have an advisory council made up of people that we recommend and those that are recommended by the authorities.
So, in this respect, we have got two areas or two sets of meetings agreed upon, which are the quarterly meetings with His Excellency and then also with the advisory council.
We would also like to recommend that apart from the quarterly meetings between the President and business, perhaps business might need to meet monthly with economic ministers to discuss any issue that might be of concern and also to plan the way forward.
Hoarding
Reports that industry was involved in hoarding of goods are not accurate. We supply our goods to wholesalers and supermarkets. If any of them have got issues and are holding stock, we would like to hear from them so that we can discuss these issues. No business worth its salt would hold back supply of goods on to the market.
However, I admit that the issue of pricing also affected some businesses.
There were some who were not prepared to release their stock over pricing issues, but these are the issues we resolved at the Presidential interface.
We are also certainly pleased that the Local Content Policy that we worked on, particularly when I was a co-chair of the committee together with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, has been approved.
The approval of the Local Content Policy shows Government’s commitment to supporting local industry and, thus, we believe that this country will go very far.
Mr Jabangwe was speaking in an interview with The Sunday Mail Chief Reporter Kuda Bwititi
