Zimpapers Logo

Business Reporter

INDUSTRY, mining and banking representative groups are joining hands to develop a comprehensive private sector strategy to input in the economic recovery programme to be submitted by Government to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF requires Zimbabwe to come up with an economic revival programme before September ahead of the institution’s meetings.The economic transformation programme could be one of the steps that Zimbabwe needs to implement before enjoying financial support from the IMF, the World Bank and other international financial institutions.

In pursuit of that, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe and the Chamber of Mines will be working together on the private sector plan, according to CZI president Busisa Moyo.

“There has been talk from the International Monetary Fund, they require the country to come up with an economic revival programme so it’s time we sat and begin to work out these issues in their depth and give them the attention they deserve,” Mr Moyo said yesterday.

“We are going to start as private sector, Chamber of Mines, Bankers Association of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and see how we can present a private sector view that perhaps can gain some traction,” he said.

He was speaking after the CZI annual general meeting which focused more on internal governance issues yesterday.

On the economic situation, Mr Moyo said the state of the economy remains “very delicate and worrying” for the manufacturing sector and there are few concerns to highlight that.

“We have had a very difficult first half of the year and the manufacturing sector is worried. Confidence is low on the back of a few announcements that were made early this year by various arms of Government. They have created certain effects in terms of consumer behaviour which is very disconcerting,” he said.

In light of this, industry is engaging as private sector but also engaging with the authorities such as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, their line ministry to see how the challenging issues can be tackled.

“I think it’s time for us to get together and look at some solutions that are long term and not patchwork. We need something that is more comprehensive. The outlook remains a delicate one.

“We had hoped that by now we would be somewhere and growing manufacturing capacity utilisation and growing output. However due to some of the challenges, the fresh headwinds that we have come across there is need to relook where we are,” said Mr Moyo.

He said fresh headwinds industry is facing are a cause for concern.

“There are some things that are emerging. Of course we do not live in a vacuum we have our neighbours who have been looking across the border and coming up with strategies to further their cause for their expose which are our imports. This has become a challenge, the use of the US dollar and the high cost environment and these are the issues that require some concerted thinking, investment in time and dialogue so that we come up with something that is comprehensive in terms of economic development,” he said.

Government is in the process of cleaning up the doing business environment to ensure that local industry thrives. The ease of doing business reforms are also aimed at ensuring that local industry thrives to a level where it can compete with external competitors.