Barely half a year after the imposing of the chaotic Statutory Instrument 64/2016, another import restriction is to hit Zimbabwe.

Government says it will add another burden on imports in order to promote local content.

The government also says since the SI 64/2016 was put in place, local companies have increased capacity while foreign firms are also setting up plants in the country.

The restriction coined “Local Content Policy,” will be in place by midyear and will introduce new regulations and support measures for manufacturers, and also promote consumption of locally manufactured goods and raw materials, the Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha told the state media.

He claimed the policy will offer incentives to industries that produce using locally procured raw materials in line with Government’s thrust to create industry value chains and linkages.

The instrument was introduced in terms of section (1)(a) of the Control of Goods (Import and Export) (Commerce) Regulations (1974).

Its enforcement has witnessed steady growth of capacity in some sectors such as food and beverages production.

Now Government wants to introduce wide-ranging regulations and policy interventions that go beyond just restricting importation of locally available goods.

Government is conducting sector-wide consultations in this regard.

Bimha told the state media Government’s focus with this was industrialisation

“As we have always said before, SI 64 was temporary measure which we always intended to refine along the way.

‘‘It was introduced in order to give a bit of respite for our industries; time to retool and re-equip after more than a decade of deindustrialisation.

“When we came up with the instrument we were aware that there was always a chance that we would place some products under the instrument whose local production may not satisfy demand.

“We were also aware that we may have failed to place some products that are available locally on the list as well. This is why we are refining the SI in order to address this problem.

“But we want to move away from being dependent on Statutory Instruments as a means of promoting growth of local industry as well as promoting consumption of locally manufactured goods.

“We are in the process of drawing up what we are calling the Local Content/Procurement Policy that will encourage and promote the consumption of goods manufactured locally. When we have such a policy in place there will be no need for Statutory Instrument interventions.

“At the moment we are consulting with representatives of business and industry including the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce among other representatives. By midyear we expect the framework to be ready,” Minister Bimha said.