Zimpapers Logo

Prince Sunduzani, Business Reporter
THE Bulawayo Leather Cluster will tomorrow hold a cluster development meeting to help stakeholders across the value chain understand the clustering concept, which seeks to accelerate the industrialisation agenda.

The workshop, organised by Mindpower Consulting in collaboration with the National University of Science and Technology’s fibre and polymer materials engineering department, will be held at the university’s main campus.

In an interview yesterday, Bulawayo Leather Cluster chairman Mr Jacob Nyathi said the workshop focuses on cluster development and how Zimbabwe can improve the model which has seen other countries’ SMEs grow their export businesses.

He said cluster development has potential to position Zimbabwe well under the Sadc industrialisation initiatives.

“The main aim is to make sure stakeholders understand the proper clustering concept as promoted by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) and used effectively to grow Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) especially in countries like India, which has seen phenomenal growth even in exports using this approach. We will learn about the South African experience especially in the agricultural sector,” said Mr Nyathi.

Stakeholders from different sectors including agriculture, are expected to attend the workshop.

Participants will be drawn from the leadership of clusters, co-operatives, youths and women’s  groups, farmers associations’ leadership and individuals from all sectors of the economy but with a special  focus on agri-business and horticulture, beef and leather value chain, textiles and clothing, among others.

The Government last year declared Bulawayo a Special Economic Zone as part of measures to accelerate industrial growth.

@PrinceNkosy102