THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has identified 18 value chains that need to be revived to jumpstart the economy. CZI president, Busisa Moyo told captains of industry in Bulawayo on Wednesday at a roundtable meeting that for the economy to tick, government and captains of industry should focus on reviving all value chains, not just individual companies.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
“We have identified 18 value chains and work is ongoing. We are talking here of cotton-to-clothing value chain, beef-to-leather value chain, juice-to-can or horticultural farm-to-juice value chain, fish-to-fork value chain, things like that,” he said.
“So looking at a development model that says we shouldn’t just look at one company, but at the value chain and seek to understand because companies fail because of value chains or something has gone wrong in the value chain or the supply chain.
“Especially these industries that we have in Zimbabwe, which were designed during UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965) days they operated an an integrated framework. So if something in that framework falls out or if David Whitehead is removed, a whole bunch of other things happen because they are all part of the value chain. So if we want to address the industrial development, we must approach it from a value chain perspective.”
Moyo said they would circulate a document to captains of industry concerning the value chain.
He said they had engaged organisations like United Nations Industrial Development Organisations (Unido) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), who had already pledged to support the value chain initiative.
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“They have already done work on the cotton-to-clothing value chain, but we said, look, the country is not just into cotton-to-clothing only. There is the orchard-to-can value chain, soya-to-white meat value chain. Can we look at developing those value chains and making interventions (or) look at a development model where those value chains are coordinated but addressed specifically?” Moyo said.
He indicated that CZI had set up three committees tasked with identifying new business opportunities and facilitating investment in key sectors of the economy.
Industrialist, Joseph Kanyekanye leads the committee on funding and investment and his team will look at creating an interface between financial institutions and industry as well as coming up with a database of industry needs and bankable projects that require funding.
Kumbirai Katsande is head of the new agri-business committee, whose mandate is to facilitate the growth of the agriculture processing industries and increase their linkage with the farming community.
The body has also set up a mining linkages committee headed by its vice-president, Sifelani Jabangwe.
This team looks at the linkages between the manufacturing industry and the mining sector with on emphasis towards developing a vibrant value chain system.
