Hosia Mviringi
President Mnangagwa will tomorrow visit Mutare, where he is expected to have an interface with captains of the industry, as he continues engaging key economic players to get an appreciation of the challenges and opportunities they face in their operations.
The trip follows numerous successful launches and commissioning of economic projects around the country.
Such efforts by the first citizen contribute to a targeted approach to industry concerns and is set to build on the gains recorded in local industry.
President Mnangagwa is set to tour some of Mutare’s most eminent economic players who are very active in driving the Provincial economy.
Among other engagements, the President will tour Willowton Industries, The Wattle Company and Mega Market.
Willowton industries is a South Africa domiciled manufacturer of fast-moving consumer goods such as cooking oils, bath and laundry soap and margarine.
Willowton Industries moved into Zimbabwe and settled in Mutare in 2018 having responded to the government’s call for import substitution and export oriented growth.
“Willowton South Africa was among the first companies which positively responded to the export oriented and import substitution policy pronouncement made by Government,” said President Mnangagwa when he launched the Mutare plant in March 2018.
“This new manufacturing facility is indeed a demonstration of the confidence you have shown to our trade and investment climate in Zimbabwe,” said the President when he launched the Mutare manufacturing plant on March 24, 2018.
Since then, the US$40 million company has become the new giant in Mutare contributing towards employment creation to the city.
Mutare has a population of 560 000 people (300 000 urban and 260 000 from surrounding rural settlements).
The Wattle company is one of the oldest companies in Mutare which has dominated the paper manufacturing business in the country.
It is the sole Wattle extract producer in Zimbabwe.
Seattle extract is used as tanning in the leather tanning industry.
The leather industry is very critical to the revival of the economy and attainment of Vision 2030.
The Wattle company becomes particularly important as the government successfully launched the Leather Sector Strategy in Bulawayo early April 2021.
Its revival and rejuvenation is critical at this moment considering that the company export 99 percent of its products, while the remaining one per cent is consumed locally.
This is a very deliberate approach by the President and government to stimulate business confidence to those companies already operating in the country while providing the necessary assurance to those that could be sitting on the fence.
The President will also tour Mega Market, itself a dominant distributor of fast moving consumer goods in Mutare and the country at large.
The President’s current efforts are in tandem with his promise to the nation that the Second Republic will be more about economics than politics.
He is on record preaching production, production, and production as a panacea to current economic woes.
During his countrywide tours, the President is taking with him the concept of devolution which encourages Provinces to grow their local Gross Domestic Product and contribute meaningfully to the national fiscus.
Last week the President was in Bulawayo where he launched the first Paediatric Orthopaedic Hospital.
Only a few weeks back he was at Makuti launching the newly rehabilitated Marongora-Hellsgate section of the North-South corridor.
These are projects that bear direct economic impact to the nation as envisaged under the five-year National Development Strategy 1 blueprint which runs from 2020 through to 2025.
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