Bulawayo (New Ziana) – Ministry of Industry and Commerce permanent secretary, Mavis Sibanda said on Thursday government recognised the private sector as the engine for accelerated and sustainable economic growth in the country.
She was speaking at a breakfast interface meeting with the Bulawayo business community which was convened by the ministry.
The Ministry sought to engage the local business community here to get views on the state of industry in Bulawayo.
“Under the NDS1 (National Development Strategy 1), government has placed the private sector as the engine for the accelerated and sustainable growth and development of the economy,” she said.
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“To achieve this, we continue to invite the private sector to lead in the policy reforms, supporting government programmes to develop the economy and addressing perennial problems affecting our country. Let’s continue to develop the public-private sector relations. We can only achieve our national goals if we continue to strengthen our relationship,” Sibanda said.
She said the ministry was working to strengthen linkages amongst value chains as part of the implementation of the NDS1.
She told captains of industry that developing a robust commercial and industrial sector was vital for import substitution.
“The local content strategy, therefore, presents an opportunity for the increased local production anchored on stimulating the development of local industry, value supply chains as well as promoting local linkages among agricultural, extractive, manufacturing and service sectors,” Sibanda said.
“As Ministry, we are working closely with Buy Zimbabwe to promote locally manufactured products,” she said.
She exhorted the business community to adopt innovative ways of conducting business through diversification and maximising trade potential,” she said.
“You will agree with me that current obtaining global economic realities have transformed the world into one global village. Businesses need, therefore, to brace themselves to this reality by adopting innovative ways of conducting business through economic diversification and maximising trade potential.
“This will result in positive knock-on effects on the domestic economy through increased production, export earnings and employment creation and of course increased household incomes,” she said.
The Ministry, Sibanda said, will strive for the creation of new jobs and preservation of existing ones by driving the industrialisation agenda through promoting the production and consumption of locally produced goods and services.
Addressing the same meeting, Industry and Commerce Minister, Sithembiso Nyoni, said dialogue between government and private sector helps to forge strong partnerships which is a necessary ingredient for industrial growth and economic prosperity which will ultimately lead to the achievement of Vision 2030.
“In line with the government’s approach, the local universities through the innovation hubs should leap frog the industries of this city and we should forge partnerships,” she said.
She also spoke on the need to curb corruption and encouraged businesspeople to report such cases through their provincial inspectors.
“We need to curb corruption. We heard issues of smuggling at borders and this impact negatively on the growth of our industry. Let`s have whistleblowers so that we fight this scourge,” Nyoni said.
“We want to work together to create corruption free zones. We also need your support,” she said.
New Ziana
