Slow progress in setting up National Productivity Centre

04 May, 2014 - 00:05 0 Views
Slow progress in setting up  National Productivity Centre

The Sunday News

charles msipa

Mr Charles Msipa

Gabriel Masvora and Dumisani Nsingo
THE snail progress in setting up the National Productivity Centre is contributing to the directionless way the country has taken in trying to revive the economy as resource allocations and distribution are not based on empirically proven needs, experts have said.An NPC is a statutory organisation that provides training, consultancy and undertakes research in the area of productivity in a country.

It promotes enhancement of productivity culture and its prime goal is to facilitate industry to enhance competitiveness both locally and internationally.

The facilitation can be done through training, systems development, productivity reports, total factor productivity and resource information.
In Zimbabwe the idea has been on the cards for the last 12 years and when it was mooted it was to be wholly financed or in part by funds from the Manpower Development Levy to which the private sector contributes a substantial amount.

National University of Science and Technology’s Technopark departmental director Dr Eli Mtetwa said unlike other countries Zimbabwe was lagging behind in setting up the NPC resulting in lack of proper direction in pushing for economic revival.

He said in Botswana where there is an NPC, the country had divided its production targets into sectors and sub-sectors making it easy to allocate resources and classify which areas needed urgent attention.

Botswana is among countries in Africa that has used the concept to develop its economy.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa is also at the forefront in encouraging its members to adopt the concept to help their companies as efforts to promote regional trade and integration gather momentum.

“I think there is a perception in our economy that it is down and out to the extent that we have lost focus on which sectors to classify as priority areas,” he said.

The lack of proper research and direction has resulted in efforts to revive the economy facing hurdles.

Resources are allocated haphazardly and in most cases the impact is minimal.

An example is the case of Bulawayo where although there is a general feeling that the city has been de-industrialised there is no focus on what sectors or sub-sectors need to be prioritised first when money is available.

An earlier fund availed by the Government — the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund paltry as it was, was never targeted for any sector resulting in minimal effect.

The fund was worth $40 million in a city that needs capital injection of nearly $1 billion.

Experts feel that if the fund had been channelled towards a specific sector, it could have been easy to trace its effectiveness.
Such information could have been readily available if there was an NPC.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Mr Charles Msipa said an NPC could easily address the issue of how to tackle de-industrialisation.

“Coming up with a National Productivity Centre will be one such initiative to put along with various value chain programmes for local manufacturers that are being facilitated by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce as well as Finance,” he said.

He said local companies could benefit as the NPC would also address the lack of competitiveness among local companies.
Although Government thinks an NPC is among measures to improve productivity, it says focus now was to fight the collapse of industry by availing money before looking at issues such as competitiveness.

Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha, who during his days as the president of Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe was one of the advocates of the idea, said the country could not talk of an NPC when there is no industry.

“We can’t really talk about productivity now when we don’t have the manufacturing sector to talk about. Once we get the industry online and new industry on board we can then say how best we can achieve efficiencies.

“Again we are talking of companies which don’t have the equipment and technology and this affects productivity. So in any case we have to address these issues first then we can zero in on productivity,” Minister Bimha said.

He added: “For every country productivity is very important because we want to produce goods and services at the least cost”.
It’s not all gloomy, some experts foresee, as the country will need to move in line with global trends to remain relevant in the global economy.

Dr Mtetwa said the country was likely to adopt a new culture that would see policy changes.

“Look, with the indigenisation policy we are likely to see a clear path. Government seems to be working on proper upwards and downwards sides so investors can clearly see where we are going. Finance and Economic Development Minister (Patrick) Chinamasa is very clear on that so I can say there is a change in the approach the country is taking to address the economy,” he said.

 

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