In an interview with The Zimbabwean last week the Zimbabwe Textiles Manufacturing Association chairperson, Tararama Gutu, said: There should be a policy that promotes investment in our sector. The existing policies only encourage trading while stifling growth within the textile sector.
He added that most textile companies were failing to modernize plants as well as to adopt new and more efficient technologies because of lack of capital.
The government should make sure that the credit lines are opened for the textile companies and they should get guarantees and surety so that they can access loans. An environment should be created which allows retailers and business owners to look for partnerships, said Gutu.
The textile industry is currently reeling under a host of problems, chief among them the elusive financial resources for recapitalization. This has resulted in the sector operating at between 20 30 per cent capacity.
Gutu said the government was confronted by a policy challenge which required a decision to determine whether the economy would be trade or value addition based.
The government should quickly make a decision on whether we should be traders or manufacturers. The government in its 2010 budget should address the issue of duty on imports as it is affecting growth in the sector. Our markets are flooded by cheap imported clothes that find themselves on the market pushing out locally manufacturing companies of business, he said.
He added that frequent power cuts and high costs of labour were negatively affecting the sector. During the first half of the year, textile production remained below the potential production levels of 700 000 tones.
Post published in: News