The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has encouraged Zimbabwe to ring-fence some of its key economic sectors for local empowerment in order to attain Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID).
This emerged at a validation workshop on the development of the local content thresholds for the fertiliser, packaging and pharmaceutical sub-sectors, which was organised by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce last week.
Some of the critical areas, which Zimbabwe can prioritise in its local content strategy, include the Manufacturing Value Added (MVA) lithium products and the manufacture of nitrogen-based ammonium nitrate fertiliser.
This comes at a time Zimbabwe is intensifying efforts to develop processing and refining industries to maximise profits from the growing global demand for lithium.
In terms of Statutory Instrument 213 of 2022, the Government banned the export of raw lithium except under written permission from the responsible minister.
Lithium has lately been experiencing a demand boom, prompting a global rush to secure the commodity.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe remains a significant importer of ammonium nitrate fertilisers despite the massive potential to produce the commodity locally.
This has lately been exacerbated by supply constraints stemming from the Russia - Ukraine conflict which has pushed the commodity's price higher and availability beyond the reach of many farmers. Local authorities have since been prompted to craft measures to revamp the fertiliser industry with the Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe (IDCZ) recently recapitalising the local basal (Compound D) fertiliser value chain as part of measures to promote local production, import substitution and domestication of the fertiliser value chain.
Speaking at the workshop, Mr Tichaona Mushayandebvu, UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) Country Representative, standing in for the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator (Zimbabwe), Mr Edward Kallon said UNECA intended to closely collaborate with UNIDO, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Centre (ITC) and other specialised UN economic agencies to support Zimbabwe's industrialisation, economic growth and competitiveness agenda. "...any successful local content strategy must therefore be seen and treated only as one of the many ISID strategies, MVA export promotion, ring-fencing some economic sectors for locals - local economic empowerment as well as Industrial research and development.
"Some ad hoc potential areas of programming interest to include in this LCS (local content strategy), local lithium-based MVA products, nitrogen-based AN fertiliser manufacturing," said Mr Mushayandebvu.
Industry and Commerce Minister, Dr Sekai Nzenza highlighted that the Government had, in efforts to enhance local content strategy, established innovation hubs to nurture and develop local ideas and solutions to industrial challenges.
She encouraged the private sector to partner with institutes of higher learning and assist them to overcome the challenges impeding progress and develop local solutions to the challenges.
"This local content strategy is aimed at promoting the utilisation of domestic resources as inputs along value chains, thereby achieving the objectives of increasing average local content levels, capacity utilisation, and manufactured exports in prioritised sectors," Minister Nzenza said.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) representative Victor Bhoroma weighed in on the issue indicating that "there is massive potential for local content development starting with the production of intermediate raw materials, which include plant-based compounds, caustic soda, hydraulic acid and additives that are major inputs in drug manufacturing."
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Mr Oliver Maponga a representative from the UNECA Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa (UNECA, SRO-SA), which is supporting the industrialisation agenda in Zimbabwe and other Southern African regional member States emphasised the need to focus on inclusive industrialization.
"We are committed to supporting industrialisation, which leaves no place and no gender behind, allowing stakeholders to move together in an industrialised environment where the country is able to produce products that will facilitate the exploitation of the market created by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement," observed Mr Maponga.
