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VP Emmerson Mnangagwa

Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
THE government is going to create a new railway line network outside the existing structure as it prepares the country to move over 5million metric tonnes of goods in the coming years, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.

VP Mnangagwa said the rehabilitation and refurbishment of the country’s rail network was not adequate to service the projected economic growth adding that a new railway line from Mozambique to Zambia via the Zambezi River was in the pipeline.

Responding to a question on mechanisms put in place by the government to breathe life into the ailing National Railways of Zimbabwe in Gweru on Friday, VP Mnangagwa said the government was in consultation with Mozambique for a railway line coming from that country to Zambia via the Zambezi River.

He said the existing rail infrastructure had limited capacity to steer the economic growth of the country as it could only move a mere 1,2 million metric tonnes of goods annually.

VP Mnangagwa said so advanced was the process that a company called SITC International had been identified to work with the government and was at the stage of discussing the process of financing the project.

“If that’s done it’ll increase our annual load to 2, 5 million metric tonnes per year. But that’s not adequate when we look at the projections of three to five years to come,” said VP Mnangagwa.

“We project that at the end of five years we need a minimum of 5 metric tonnes going in or out per year.”

Earlier, VP Mnangagwa said the world over, innovation remained the lynchpin of manufacturing.

He called on the local industry to embrace ZimAsset adding that the country had a potential of catapulting itself to new heights by “unlocking manufacturing competitiveness”.

“By way of clarity, innovation encapsulates the ability to turn knowledge into new and improved goods and services. This will enable us to develop new strengths in value added products and services that can compete well within and without the country. I believe that driven innovation is the bedrock for unlocking and powering manufacturing to new heights,” said VP Mnangagwa.

He said the development of the country was ultimately set by the productivity of companies and the relative ability of the companies to exploit the knowledge of how and where to exploit products and services.

VP Mnangagwa said it was important for both employers and employees in every company or business enterprise to put in place measures to ensure optimal labour productivity.

“An attendant issue is the ability to anticipate and manage risks. I’m aware that some quarters regard Zimbabwe as a high risk country. I urge you not to take this as a given. For a start history teaches us that it’s those with a high degree of astuteness who can turn odds into benefits and thrive on adversity by turning the negatives into positives,” said the Vice-President.

He said it was common knowledge that Zimbabwe was using a basket of currencies, for example the South African Rand and United States Dollar, among other currencies.

Under these circumstances, VP Mnangagwa said, a combination of increasing productivity, reducing the cost of doing business, enhancing the fight against corruption and eliminating red tape become viable strategies to propel competitiveness. “I want to remind industrial leaders here gathered that our country is at a crossroads and that the seeds of turning around the economy and capacitating our industry to new heights are at our disposal. To realise this, I implore you to seize the opportunities availed to you by the government and make the most of them,” he said.

VP Mnangagwa said Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa, in his Mid Term Fiscal Policy Review last Thursday, reflected the government’s major policy announcement which responds to a host of concerns to improve productivity.

“These include protective measures to ensure that the textile industry, agro-processing, mining and the leather industry among others thrive. The other initiatives include the reduction of power tariffs for tourism, mining and manufacturing,” he said. VP Mnangagwa said the government had made a decision for financial institutions to reduce the cost of borrowing to single digit interests rates so that more companies can borrow.

“I call upon you to embrace these initiatives,” he said.