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Sukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Gwanda Correspondent
THE Government is working on a programme to provide incentives to companies that wish to set up factories in small towns as part of efforts to industrialise rural provinces.

In an interview, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, urged various provinces to identify and develop land in their areas that could be turned into industrial sites.

He said his Ministry was working on a report on the modalities of the programme which would then be tabled in Cabinet.

“As a Ministry we are in the process of coming up with programmes where we will try and assist with incentives any companies that want to set up factories that seek to value add whatever primary production is taking place in those areas.

“Some of these incentives can include the exclusion of these companies from paying taxes for a certain period of time but we will have to discuss with the Ministry of Finance first and present the issue before Cabinet. We urge provinces to recommend industrial sites and the land that can be leased to investors,” he said.

“We can’t develop our country by having everyone moving to the major cities. We have to come up with strategies to decongest the major cities. There is no district that doesn’t have abundance of one natural resource or the other. It’s high time we thought along those lines and this is the best way we can create employment at local level.”

Minister Ndlovu said this would be in line with the devolution programme.

He said urban infrastructure was now overwhelmed because of the high influx of people from rural communities.

Minister Ndlovu said employment had to be decentralised to small towns and rural areas as this would improve standards of living.

He said economic activities also had to be decentralised.

“Government is taking bold moves towards fulfilling a constitutional mandate of implementing devolution. We expect that this will be the easiest way to develop provinces. When devolution comes it’s not about how much we will get from the national cake but what our contribution will be. How do we utilise the resources that we will get and the natural resources that we have in our provinces so that we grow the national cake,” the Minister said.

Minister Ndlovu also warned businesses from using the tree tier pricing system. He said the fact that Government had not acted on this did not mean it condoned the practice.

“We have made it clear that it’s the responsibility of Government to determine the medium of exchange and set policy not the business community.

“As long as there hasn’t been any other pronouncement, we are a multi-currency regime and for any business to choose not to accept any currency that has been prescribed by Government is a violation of the law and they should stop that,” he said.

Speaking on the recent violent protests that resulted in looting of goods, Minister Ndlovu said members of the business community in Bulawayo were mobilising resources to assist their counterparts that suffered losses.

He said some retailers that had been partly affected had started receiving supplies to resume operations.

Minister Ndlovu also appealed to various stakeholders to contribute towards assisting affected businesses. — @DubeMatutu