Vandudzai Zirebwa Buy Zimbabwe
The mining industry last week converged on the resort town of Victoria Falls to discuss the modalities for enhancing the value addition and beneficiation of Zimbabwe’s minerals. While the conference was clearly a step in the right direction, what was evident is the fact that the issue of beneficiation requires the involvement of a broader spectrum of stakeholders for it to be successful.
The absence of the manufacturing sector was, however, worrying, a point that was highlighted by a participant during the discussions.
The participant urged the National Economic Consultative Forum to be reinvigorated in order to bring together various players that are central to achieving the national vision.
As it is, the different lobby groups in the country are now in the habit of retreating to different parts of the country to discuss issues that in hindsight appear to be multi-sectoral. Unfortunately what this has tended to do is split efforts and confuse the policy making process.
In fact, a common observation that emerged at the beneficiation conference as indeed many other conferences held in the country is the information asymmetry that dominates our country.
For instance it’s common to see Government and different mining groups coming up with different figures when it comes to simple issues such as the grades of the various minerals in the country.
The miners would say they are generally low and cannot be exploited profitably on the basis of the present royalties and tax structure.
On the other hand Government finds such statistics not convincing and prefers to use figures that may have come from other sources.
Sadly the result is that policies and laws are then made on the basis of flawed information which does little to advance the agenda of our country.
Minister Chidakwa who was at the conference sought to proffer a solution to this challenge when he asked the diamond industry to specify what it expects from his ministry.
In this particular case, the industry and policy makers had to bring various experts together strictly for the purpose of interrogating market, technical and financial information.
In the end both parties are now working on a common understanding rather than innuendos, suspicions and other forms of chicanery.
The challenge by Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Patrick Chinamasa was for the platinum sector which is complaining bitterly over the imposition of 15 percent export tax to seek audience with him and share information relating to the business.
Understandably, when they are urgent issues to deal with the chances of thinking widely and broadly is limited.
More often than not the tendency is to go for the shortest route to solve the problem. Experience though suggests that the easiest route tends to be the longest and rarely if ever yields the intended result.
While it is clear that the biggest users of the beneficiated platinum is the motor industry, what is sad is that our local companies such as Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries were not part of the discussions.
The question then is how do we expect to advance if we exclude key stakeholders. This by no means implies that the mining industry should not have proceeded with conference.
Not at all. The call is that if we are to succeed in the many issues that face us, especially on this issue we must reach out and adopt all inclusive approach premised on the realisation that the world has gone beyond one industry and even a country.
In some cases raw materials come from China for use by a sector that may be totally unrelated to the one that supplied such an input.
With the mining sector is central to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery and growth, it should be noted that mining beneficiation is not the sole responsibility of the mining industry.
In fact beneficiation should be viewed from a value chain perspective. A multi-sectoral approach to beneficiation will transform Zimbabwe from a country that relies on the exploitation of natural resources to a nation that in the long term is driven by the sale of finished products, services, plant and equipment.
Such a transformation will need regular checks on issues that affected the once thriving industry.
These include issues to do with re-tooling, marketing and the competitiveness of the finished product on both local and international markets.
It is in this vein that Buy Zimbabwe is holding its Annual Conference under the theme: Building Competitiveness, Leveraging on Local and Global Opportunities on April 6, 2014.
The conference seeks to explore how local companies can increase their competitiveness amidst aging machinery, negatively skewed salaries vs. productivity ratios and a non-responsive market.
Captains of industry, bankers, miners, marketers, academics and many other service providers (Power, Telecoms, Transport etc) are expected to be part of this critical conference.
The forthcoming Buy Zimbabwe Competitiveness Conference and the recently held Mining Beneficiation Conference are all key components of a specially formulated cocktail comprising discussions, researches and consultations that are vital in laying the foundation for the transformation of this nation into an industrial powerhouse.
Competitive organisations builds a competitive nation. Till next week, God Bless.
- Email, vandudzai@buyzimbabwe.org.zw, cell 00263773751878.