Reforms key to unlocking manufacturing industry growth
Isaac Pinielo | Friday September 4, 2015 15:13
The sector is said to be the vehicle towards rapid sustainable economic growth.
Speaking at a Human Resource Development Council (HRDC) workshop held to establish manufacturing sector committees, Mabena said there is need for the introduction of a globally competitive regulatory framework and improvement of government bureaucratic processes.
“Excessive government laws and regulations resulting in a hostile business environment can encourage informal practices and corruption,” he said.
Mabena further said for the sector to grow, access to cheap financing for start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should be provided.
He added that the manufacturing sector should adopt an education and workforce policy that develops superior talent and stronger collaborations with manufacturers and universities, through sector human resource development committees, also known as sector HRD committees.
HRD committees are technical committees of the HRDC, whose main mandate is to produce sector specific HRD plans that will ensure a direct linkage between the skills being supplied and what the economy requires.
“We should develop science, technology and innovation policy, which promotes advanced manufacturing. We also need globally competitive products and advanced manufacturing processes,” he said.
Currently, manufacturing companies are said to be facing numerous challenges such as poor work ethics of the labour workforce, poor labour productivity, lack of access to finance, lack of skilled labour which affects as well as mismatch of skills to the industries.
Small market size and Botswana’s proximity to South Africa which is more competitive and has a larger market size, have also been identified as other challenges that prevent the manufacturing sector to grow.
On that note, Mabena said businesses should be globally focussed to justify investment. HRDC chief executive officer, Patrick Molutsi said the manufacturing sector should not only focus on the local market for it to grow, noting that there is a huge market which can be established through the Internet.
“With the availability of the Internet, I do not think we should worry about the small market since products can be marketed online and sold to a global market,” he said.