Bulawayo Mayor On a Drive to Resuscitate Industrial Hub Status of Bulawayo by Developing Robust MSMEs Sector
The city of Bulawayo is looking to resuscitate its status as the industrial hub of Zimbabwe, with a focus on developing a robust and innovative SME sector, according to Bulawayo Mayor, David Coltart.
Coltart shared his hopes during an ongoing workshop aimed at training entrepreneurs in the city and equipping them with skills to stabilise and grow their businesses.
“The vision for the city is to resuscitate the status as the industrial hub of Zimbabwe and indeed, of southern Africa,” said Coltart.
Focus!
He added, “That may be taken to imply that our focus is on large scale industries, but we recognize that a critical component of large-scale industries is the development of a robust innovative SME sector in our city.”
The city hopes to achieve this by improving the facilities for the informal sector, which is plagued by a lack of access to capital and inadequate facilities for manufacturing their goods. Coltart suggested that moving informal markets away from areas such as Fifth Avenue could provide protection from the elements, access to toilets and water, and decongest the city.
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SMEs
“In the same way, we need to see what we can do to put them (manufacturing sector of the informal sector) into more appropriate areas to, for example, manufactured homes,” he said. “If we put them into better areas, we have better access to electricity, where there’s colour, for example, they’re not having to maintain the affection of the day, which in turn will become more efficient.”
However, the development of SMEs requires the support of international organisations, such as the International Labor Organization (ILO) and African Development Bank, and a partnership with the government to ensure its policies synchronise with government policies.
“We are implementing the project with civil rights, training workspaces,” said the National Project Coordinator for ILO, Jairos Chanetsa. “It is to promote the official safety of the SMEs. We know that SMEs find it difficult to distribute their products due to their limited locality, but with their integrated images, where they are doing bigger frames, they are able to take their food as opposed to sitting in the chair right now.”
Access to Information
Chanetsa emphasised the importance of access to information and training to help SMEs become suppliers for intermediate products or interact with research to service new markets.
“Promoting sustainable enterprises is actually a kind of pay for key strategic objectives for the ILO, because promotional pricing to aid is an employment creation,” he said.
He further said, “SMEs facing overages which is where we reduce the training program, and it will be sustainable in the resilience in the brace so that it is in preview repaid and disappeared into adults to this crisis that is where they need not only to survive but should be able to independent facilities in this race to come out.”
Key Partnerships
In the end, the success of the development of SMEs in Bulawayo depends on the support of key partners, the government, and the international community.
Coltart hopes that with the right support and mindset, SMEs in Bulawayo can thrive and help resuscitate the city’s status as the industrial hub of Zimbabwe.
“As I said in my remarks at the workshop, the vision for the city is to resuscitate the status as the industrial hub of Zimbabwe and indeed, of southern Africa,” he said. “And that may be taken to imply that our focus and so these ones are large scale for industries that we recognize that a critical component of large scale for industries is the development of a robust innovative MSMEs sector in our city.”
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