Industry says government must show commitment to revive manufacturing

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) says the government has to show that it has policies that will revive the country’s moribund manufacturing sector and improve investor confidence.

Chief executive Clifford Sileya said at the weekend that the country was not moving forward economically and that government was failing to address critical policies that could help reverse the decline.

The CZI will on Thursday this week host a symposium at which finance minister Patrick Chinamasa is scheduled to officiate while industry and indigenisation ministers are expected to attend.

Sileya wants the ministers to explain the delay in tackling issues affecting industry.

“Our question for the symposium is ‘why are we not moving forward and where is the holdup’,” said Sileya.

“Our calendar this year is crowded because we want to push for implementation of policies. The symposium …. will look at what the country is going through and what can be done so that we have new enablers to (grow) the economy.”

Officials from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are also expected to attend the symposium.

Sileya said CZI wanted government to address the proposed revamp of labour laws, the infrastructure gap, power generation and supply among others.

Zimbabwe is ranked number 171 out of 189 on the 2014 World Bank Doing Business rankings and 124 out of 144 in the World Economic Forum(WEF) Global Competitiveness Report for 2014-2015.- The Source

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