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THE Government has been urged to provide incentives for players in the textile industry to enable them to expand current spinning capacity to harness all potential foreign exchange inflows that is being lost as the bulk of local lint is exported in raw form.
The National Economic Consultative Forum said the textile industry provided vast opportunities for investment that could help the economy grow, hence the need to enhance the industry’s spinning capacity to value add the lint before exporting.
"The think tank recommends that the Government provides incentives for the current players to expand the country’s spinning capacity’s (plant and machinery) so that Zimbabwe can process the 70 percent lint that is being exported unspun.
"The establishment of five new spinning plants is being proposed.
"The resulting value addition would create more employment and expand the country’s export capacity," NECF said.
According to NECF the value addition in cotton processing results in the production of knitted or crocheted garments, which constitute one of the fifty fastest growing products in the world trade as was the case during the period 1990 to 2000.
To derive the highest returns in this area, the consultative forum said there was need for the country to invest in both capacity building and modern weaving equipment.
The opportunities in garment manufacturing the NECF said were enormous, as talented personnel would be needed to produce for both the domestic and export markets. The NECF said the current "hew and cry" against stiff competition from imported clothing was, in part, a result of the large volume production of clothing by external competitors who then reap huge profits form the economies of scale emanating from their low priced exports to Zimbabwe.
"If the anticipated growth in cotton production is matched by the expansion of our ginning, spinning weaving capacities, this will lay the groundwork for an establishment of factories for making clothing for everyone," said the NECF.
08 June, 2010 by admin