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It is globally accepted that focus on raising industrial production levels in any country is the sure way to grow the economy. This means in the case of Zimbabwe, for this trajectory to be achieved, all pillars that is Government, industry, consumers and civic society must channel efforts towards economic revival.

Discord at the expense of a global national focus will lead to the demise of not only political actors, but industry as well as some will close shop never to open again — a scenario we do not want to happen. Therefore, growing the industry has a number of positives to the economy that include improving food security, reducing imports, particularly of locally available products, halting export of jobs and saving the country foreign currency. Last week we carried a story that capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector declined to 45,1 percent in 2017 from 47,4 percent recorded last year as rising costs of production and foreign currency shortages, among other challenges continued to take a toll on the sector. Competition from cheap imported substitutes, antiquated machinery constantly breaking down, low local demand and failure to access affordable finance, were some of the key exogenous factors impeding industrial growth, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries revealed during the release of the Manufacturing Sector Survey 2017.

Like what CZI chief economist Dephine Mazambani said while presenting the findings, the “vicious cycle” surely can be broken by addressing Zimbabwe’s cost structures and holistic regulatory reforms. The country’s economy is delicate and this calls for all players, Government and industry to play ball. As players grapple challenges with a view to find solutions, the habit of blame game should not be tolerated. If industry raises fundamental issues that are impeding industrial growth in the country, we surely expect all actors to listen and if others raise concern on critical issues they feel are overplayed, there should be an exclusive way of handling such. It’s a fact that Zimbabwe’s cost structure should be addressed as it affects final product costs and renders Zimbabwean exports uncompetitive, affecting capacity to raise foreign currency, among other challenges.

After announcing the capacity utilisation decrease, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya was quick to raise intriguing points worth noting. We are persuaded to buy Dr Mangudya’s argument that at a time when the CZI survey says capacity utilisation is declining, it’s taking only two of the seven companies in the oil processing sector to meet the country’s demand of 10 million litres per month. The seven companies in the sector have capacity to produce “about 45 million litres of cooking oil a month, which means there is excess capacity within some sectors as Zimbabwe’s demand for cooking oil is just 10 million litres per month. Besides, Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 has seen many companies with products covered by the instrument increasing their capacity to at least 100 percent. Therefore, industry should contextualise its figures on capacity utilisation, indicating their relevance to domestic consumption.

Surely, if one company in a sector can produce for the entire country and the rest being excess capacity, there is no need to raise alarm in the economy. However, if close to 40 percent of companies in the manufacturing sector have equipment older than 20 years, there is definitely a need to look into that even if it means Government coming up with subsidies to help them retool. Antiquated equipment is wasteful and slow, making it expensive for industry to produce under such situations. As such, Government’s efforts in reforming the ease of doing business environment, focus on fundamentals that affect production in all sectors of the domestic economy and safeguarding the productive sectors from cheap imports become imperative if our industry is to grow.