The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
CABINET yesterday approved the Zimbabwe Leather Sector Strategy: 2021-2030, a blueprint that is set to improve capacity utilisation in the industry which in turn is expected to speed up rural industrialisation and devolution among other objectives.
The strategy, a successor to the Leather Sector Strategy (2012-2017), is meant to increase the overall competitiveness of the leather value chain in Zimbabwe and enhance access to both local and export markets for finished products.
In a post-Cabinet briefing in Harare yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the strategy will prioritise increased investments in industry, with emphasis on value addition and beneficiation of agricultural produce to promote export-led industrialisation as well as increase employment opportunities.
“Cabinet noted that the objectives of the strategy are to increase capacity utilisation of value-added products from 30 percent to 75 percent by the end of 2030; to enhance the application of sustainable production technologies by manufacturing companies from the current 10 percent to 60 percent by 2030; to increase the export of leather products from 10 percent of production to 40 percent; and to lobby for the development and reform of 70 percent of the identified policies and legal frameworks for the transformation of the sector by 2030,” she said.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the strategy, which was pinned on the capacitation of new farmers and introduction of new technologies, would also help in the government’s twin goals of rural industrialisation and devolution.
“The strategies to be employed to achieve the set objectives include the capacitation of the livestock farmers; the introduction of new technologies; the promotion of product and market development by value chain players; and advocacy programmes on introduction of supportive policies. The strategy also seeks to promote the rural industrialisation drive and the devolution agenda since it will be implemented through devolved structures to reach and empower the local communities,” she said.
