Modi rallies Bulawayo businesses Deputy Minister Raj Modi

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
INDUSTRY and Commerce Deputy Minister Raj Modi has rallied the Bulawayo business community to show determination to drive industrial turnaround.

Addressing delegates during a Bulawayo business forum held on Saturday night, Cde Modi said the revival of city companies does not only require ideas and new technology but determination to do so.

“It requires willpower. Do not underestimate the power of willpower to change the industrial landscape. Failure will not be a possibility if our determination to succeed is strong enough. But willpower without hard work is nothing. Hard work pays, hard work works,” he said.

“Our industries will not be revived if we wait for some other persons or some time. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the industrialists that we seek.”

Cde Modi said local industrialists should put their heads together with a common cause underpinned by ambitions to resuscitate ailing firms and reverse years of stagnation that resulted in massive de-industrialisation owing to the harsh economic climate.

“But as we agree and disagree, we should not forget that which unites us — we all want our industries to work. We want our people to buy Zimbabwe, we want to reduce our import bill,” said the Deputy Minister.

Before the economic downturn, Bulawayo used to be the country’s industrial hub employing over 20 000 people in different sectors ranging from clothing and textile, engineering, foundry, food manufacturing and processing, among others.

As a result of de-industrialisation, Zimbabwe has since 2009 seen an influx of cheap imported products, causing the country to struggle to control the negative trade deficit. In the first half of the year, Zimbabwe’s trade deficit rose by 34 percent to $1,26 billion. In light of the challenges bedevilling the economy, the country also needs foreign direct investment.

“We want foreign investors to come to Zimbabwe. We want them to make their products here for the local, regional and international market. But for them to come they need a reason. We need to give them a reason to choose us instead of them going to another country,” said Cde Modi.

He said prospective investors to Zimbabwe can only be attracted by an enabling environment with improved ease of doing business, tax incentives and reduced cost structure.

“But that can only happen if we all embrace the spirit of November which gave birth to the new political dispensation. In November last year, we proved to ourselves and we showed the world that when we are united we can do anything and we can achieve everything that we desire,” said Modi.

He challenged local businesses to work hard saying solutions would not come from Government alone. Speaking at the same occasion, Bulawayo Minister of State for Provincial Affairs, Judith Ncube, said as long as the industrial hub status of Bulawayo was not restored, the country’s economy would continue to sneeze. — @okazunga

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