Not only are we substituting imports, we are creating employment and make sure that we do not export foreign currency that is made by those who are profiteering. We have invested in water bottling in our country. However, for that to happen, I believe that the Government, through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, can actually come up with a package that basically says, we are going to import for every district, a water bottling plant that must produce water that will be consumed by Members of Parliament when they are attending a workshop at Montclaire or Troutbeck Resort. I think it is embarrassing to have water coming from Harare so that the people in Nyanga can drink, yet we have the finest water that is reputed in the country. I believe that the President’s vision can be supported in this particular way.
The same applies to timber; we have huge forestry in Nyanga but we buy furniture in Harare, from China and South Africa. When you look at the price of some of the machinery to produce furniture, it is not expensive. When we look at the work that is being done by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education in terms training the skills that are able to use basic machinery to produce furniture and when you go to some of the most active industrial places here in Harare, you will see individuals making furniture. It will honestly be embarrassing that we are importing furniture.
Perhaps in support of the President’s vision, we need resources which are directly targeted at all districts where there is timber to produce locally and supply locally. Therefore, we will be supporting His Excellency’s vision which he spoke about in the State of the Nation Address, that we must continue the efforts towards import substitution and making sure that we are producing to avoid the continued outflow of foreign currency.
We have investors who have come in my district for instance, to cut timber. Locals are hiring equipment in order to cut that timber but I believe that we can, in support of His Excellency’s vision that he clearly articulated in the State of the Nation Address, make resources available to our young men and women who are in desperate need of employment to buy the machinery, make available the foreign currency in order for them to be able to import the machinery for the timber harvesting happening in these areas. I go back again to the point that some of these basic areas, if we allow foreigners to come and invest in them, it is their right to make the profits and ship them out of the country. However, this can be saved and we keep them in our country if we allow our locals to do that because this is not sophisticated investment. I believe that the President’s vision as articulated in his address can be supported through some of these strategies.
This policy can be super-successful because we have the skills. We have the resources that we are producing but we are not converting them and the link is not yet there between what the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education is doing and producing excellent human resources and the financing to make sure that those excellent human resources are employing themselves and being employed in industries in which we have the resources. I spoke of Nyanga but the timber industry can be promoted in Chimanimani District, in Matebeleland Region where we have hard wood timber which is huge in terms of the export market.
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