The Sunday Mail
Oliver Kazunga
FINANCE and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube will officially open the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) annual conference in Harare Friday morning, with the major highlight being the launch of a US$300 million facility for the manufacturing sector.
CZI in partnership with Loita Capital and Raindew Trading will be providing the funding.
Of the amount, US$200 million will be a supply chain facility for raw materials and equipment, while the remainder would be for investment and value chain programmes.
“The Minister (Prof Ncube) is officially launching the CZI conference this morning,” said chief director of communications in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Mr Clive Mphambela.
The three-day event, which began on Wednesday, is being held under the theme “Glocalise”, which connotes that local industry should embrace global trends to foster competitiveness on the international arena.
Companies or new products established in the last five years are also participating at an exhibition running alongside the annual conference.
The aim of the exhibition is to showcase development and growth potential of business and industry in Zimbabwe.
Funding constraints remain one of the major challenges affecting local manufacturing.
The need for retooling by the manufacturing sector is on the back of antiquated plant and equipment, which is affecting output or and capacity utilisation.
Government has in the past come up with financial packages to bail out local firms.
In 2018, the manufacturing sector said it needed US$1,7 billion annually for retooling.
