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Midlands Correspondent
BUY Zimbabwe says local manufacturing companies should take advantage of the firming of the United States dollar against regional currencies, especially the South African rand, to import equipment for retooling. The greenback has since 2010 firmed by about 45 percent against the rand. South Africa is Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner with the bulk of its products flooding the local market.

Buy Zimbabwe chief executive officer, Munyaradzi Hwengwere, said the appreciation in value of the United States dollar against the rand provides local companies with an opportunity to import industrial equipment cheaply.

“Our response to this situation must be equal to the problem at hand and to every problem what opportunities do we see. For us the opportunity means it’s actually cheaper for us to procure capital equipment from South Africa and reduce our costs here because we then get rid of our antiquated equipment,” he said.

The statement by the local lobby group that campaigns for the buying of locally manufactured goods comes at a time when the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) is also lobbying the government to scrap duty on capital equipment being imported for retooling of the manufacturing sector.

Hwengwere said despite the problems of the influx of South African products on to the local market in the short term, the country should prepare for the medium to long term by ramping up local production as the firming of the dollar against the rand is a sign that the South African economy is going through a recession.

“The weakening of the rand is an indicator that all is not well in South Africa and if there are going to be problems in South Africa and the greenback is going to be a stable currency here.

“What does it mean in terms of our preparedness to get into the South African economy, to get into Zambia which is having similar problems or even Mozambique?

“So we can also look at the medium term and say the United States dollar can actually create opportunities for us and say in the short term while it will make some goods in South Africa cheaper than ours but it creates an opportunity for us to procure equipment cheaper to improve our competitiveness,” he said.

Hwengwere said Zimbabwe could only take the game to the South Africans if the cost drivers such as electricity tariffs, policy inconsistencies and bottlenecks inherent in the economy are addressed.