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Business Editor
ZIMBABWE needs a coordinated value chain model as a strategy to attain competitiveness and increase exports, industry captains said yesterday.

Discussing at the on-going Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) annual congress in Bulawayo, participants who included industrialists, technocrats and senior Government officials said the beneficiation route presents more opportunities for job creation and economic growth.

They said embracing value chains was a critical strategy towards re-industrialisation in Zimbabwe.

Value addition and beneficiation is a key component of the Government’s development blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset: 2013-18).

“We need to look seriously into the value chain issue because we are not competitive as a country and in the region,” industrialist Dr Callisto Jokonya said.

Zimbabwe’s manufacturing industry capacity utilisation is around 34 percent.

This has created a supply gap in the economy, which has resulted in rampant imports that have created an estimated $3 billion trade deficit annually.

CZI deputy president Mr Sifelani Jabangwe stressed the need to increase linkages between industry and training institutions so as to enhance knowledge transfer and innovation.

Participants concurred saying learning institutions need to be well equipped to be business incubators.

They said while the private sector should drive the value chain initiative, the Government should play its part by creating an enabling investment climate.

There was consensus on the need to increase investment in agriculture as the backbone of manufacturing in terms of provision of key raw materials and bolstering food security.

Industrialist Mr Kumbirai Katsande said businesses should move with the times and not be rigid, challenging company executives to produce for exports.

CZI has already identified 18 value chains that need to be revived in order to jumpstart the economy.

Among these is the cotton to clothing value chain, beef to leather value chain, fruit to can or horticultural farm to juice, fish to fork value chain and so forth.