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Elita Chikwati Senior Reporter
Government will continue creating a conducive environment for business to grow and contribute towards employment creation and economic growth, Vice President Kembo Mohadi has said.

He said this after touring Davipel Holdings plant in Sunway City, Harare, on Friday.

Davipel is a dried food manufacturing company established in 2002, with the objective of supplying quality dried foods to local and export markets.

The Vice President also toured two other subsidiaries of Davipel — Agri-Milling, an agro-processing company that is into mealie meal production, porridge, maize bran, maize grit among others products and Flavouroom which is into production of flavours, soya chunks, and samp among other products.

Vice President Mohadi said he was impressed by the work being done by Davipel Holdings managing director Mr Davison Norupiri and his wife Pelagia as they were not only generating foreign currency, but also complimenting Government’s developmental programmes.

“You are looking at the local markets. You should also look at the regional markets and produce according to the dictates of those markets. This will enable you to penetrate the regional market. We must not only produce for local consumption, but also for capital development.

“As Zimbabwe, we have SADC, where we can look at Free Trade Area or COMESA which is also two thirds of Africa. We should do some research on those markets and establish the gaps that need to be filled.

“As Government we will do a lot in terms of creating an atmosphere conducive for development. Each ministry has a department which should develop locals. We also encourage research. No country has ever developed without research,” he said.

He said Government was encouraging foreigners willing to invest in Zimbabwe to employ locals to promote skills transfer.

“Locals with requisite skills to run certain industries will be supported through policies and funding where there is need to do so. Davipel is one example of a company which started small. Our aim is not to keep businesses small, but to grow them so they graduate to become major enterprises. Let us not go to the United Kingdom or go for greener pastures, but make your pastures green here,” he said.

He said the Second Republic had also changed the education system so that graduates are not only job seekers, but have a mind to create employment.

“We have less than two years, but we have seen the results. Due to Covid-19 there was need for ventilators and our university has manufactured a ventilator. Research is good in business and we should be able to come up with our own vaccine if we do research,” he said.

VP Mohadi expressed concern over bureaucracy which he said was discouraging investments and developmental projects.

Mr Norupiri said his company was complimenting Government initiatives to ensure economic revival.

“Government has come up with quite a number of initiatives and we decided to follow that. As a company, we are looking at three main pillars. On beneficiation and value addition, we are looking at adding value to the locally produced raw materials and in the process supporting the farmer to go back into the field.

“We are looking at import substitution. We have been importing our raw materials and because of the initiative introduced by Government, we have worked towards substituting quite a number of imports. We are now manufacturing some of our raw materials. The other pillar is export promotion. We are actually working to create our own foreign currency base and with the support from Government we have managed to see ourselves growing rather than being crybabies,” he said.

He said they are also preparing to promote devolution through setting up manufacturing plants in other provinces to create employment.