The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
LOCAL business organisations are in the process of coming up with a list of prioritised products that would be included in the Local Content Policy (LCP) meant to further protect local companies from competition from cheap imports.
The Government announced recently that it had started formulating the Local Content Policy which will stipulate percentage thresholds for goods that will qualify as locally produced to support domestic production.
Ministry of Industry and Commerce recently engaged the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Zimbabwe to come up with recommendations.
The local content regulations would form a key part of Government’s broad industrialisation initiatives and would be considered as “smart” protectionism measures.
The companies benefiting from the SI 64 have registered a significant increase in their order books from 30 percent to 60 percent.
In a statement, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) chief executive officer Mr Clifford Sileya said manufacturing industries will come up with a list of prioritised products that would be recommended to Government for the formulation of the local content policy.
“There is a rapid results programme in progress for formulating the local content policy and also for sanitising the SI 64 products. Not all products will be included in this first phase of the process. The intention is to focus on low hanging fruits. There is a Prioritisation Committee which is co-chaired by the chair of Industrialisation Committee that is expected to come up with the first list of prioritised products,” he said in an email sent to Sunday Business.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean manufacturers have called on Government to support local firms to enable them to produce quality products and sell them at competitive prices.
Speaking at a CZI stakeholders meeting in Gweru last week, Bata managing director Mr Ehsan Zaman said there was a need for Government to complement the SI 64 by giving local firms rebates.
He said there was need for local raw material suppliers to offer prices that are competitive and that enable the manufacturers to be viable, competitive and profitable.
Mr Zaman said the high cost of production in the country was making local products uncompetitive.
