'WMMI needs effective procurement policy to restart'

Published: 16 April 2014

The mothballed Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries is in a functional state and can start operating as soon as Government puts in place an effective local procurement policy for the motor industry, an official has said.

WMMI managing director Engineer Dawson Mareya said the state of the WMMI plant is comparable to other plants in the developed world.

"The condition of our plant is not an issue, the issue is that we have no market for our products. I visited the Toyota Plant in Nagoya, Japan, and the condition of the plant is almost the same as what we have here....we have the production capacity in the country to produce quality vehicles given if the market is there for the product. That is where the Government should come in terms of facilitating the environment that enables us to produce and sell," he said.

"Although the plant currently mothballed, it can start running from tomorrow, and can produce 9 000 units a year, but we need to put in place a policy to improve." Zimbabwe already has a procurement policy, but it has not been effective.

Speaking at the BuyZimbabwe Conference last week, Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) general manager Mike Ndudzo lamented "gaps" in the local procurement policy.

"There are so many technicalities, conditions of service that are used to by-pass the procurement order," he said.

He estimated that the country was importing around 68 000 second hand cars, compared to 5 000 new cars that are currently being produced locally.

The demand for new vehicles for the local market was estimated at 35 000 in 1997 with the effective demand being 25 000, of which 18 000 were supplied by the four main assembly plants at WMMI, Quest, WH Dahmer and Deven Engineering.

The demand for new vehicles has contracted to an estimated 6 000 in 2011, but an effective local procurement policy can help drive up demand.
- BH24