From the 22nd to 27th of November 2020, the Zambia Association of Manufacturers (ZAM) will be hosting its 9th Annual Manufacturer’s Week, under the theme “Economic Recovery Through Innovative Resilient Manufacturing”.
The Manufacturer’s Week is an annual event that celebrates Zambian manufacturing. The Week brings together international and local value adders to unpack Zambia’s vast manufacturing opportunities. Additionally, key stakeholders collaboratively engage with Zambian manufacturers including policy makers in Government, captains of industry, civil society organisations and the general public, all in the effort to promote local manufacturing and support the growth of the manufacturing sector in Zambia.
Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Manufacturer’s Week takes a twist. The 9th Annual Manufacturer’s Week will be innovatively held in the “new normal” combining virtual and physical aspects of doing business. ZAM seeks to contribute to resilience and economic recovery through innovative ways. Recognising the importance of innovation in economic development and the strategic role manufacturing plays in supporting innovation, this year’s event is centered on encouraging collaborative effort to support innovative manufacturing in Zambia. The 9th edition of the Manufacturer’s Week will explore innovation as a means of building resilience, promoting efficient and environmentally friendly manufacturing for economic recovery.
Indeed, the manufacturing sector plays a strategic role in promoting both radical and incremental innovation. According to Gault and Zhong innovation refers to creating value from knowledge through the provision of new products to the market or providing new ways of producing goods or services. Innovation also entails organising production processes better. Innovation is risky and sometimes requires huge sunk costs. These aspects of innovation are likely to discourage many players in the economy to invest in and support innovation. Therefore, entrepreneurs in manufacturing take risks to change things and drive innovation.
Since manufacturing and value addition are uptakers of innovation, they remain an important engine for innovative growth and poverty reduction in any economy. In the recent past, Zambia’s manufacturing sector’s value added as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has steadily grown from about 7.6% in 2010 to 8.1% of GDP in 2018, in contrast to other key Zambian sectors whose contribution to GDP has been declining such as mining (12.8% – 10.7%) and agriculture (9.4% – 5.9%) in the same period as reported by the Zambia Statistics Agency. ZAM’s goal is to enhance the manufacturing sector’s contribution to more than 30% of GDP by 2030.
However, Zambia faced tough economic conditions in 2019 and manufacturing growth plunged to 2.4%, even though the sector had contributed 4% to GDP in the previous year 2018. Despite reduced growth in 2019, the Labour Force Survey shows that the manufacturing sector’s share of total employment stood at 8.1% of the total labour force, and was the third largest employer aside the Wholesale and Retail Sector and Agriculture. Manufacturing jobs were more decent as they were less informal.
In 2020, the manufacturing sector’s growth is likely to decline further, owing to the devastating effects of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). In the first quarter, even before the effects of the pandemic hit hard, the Zambia Statistics Agency revealed that growth in the manufacturing sector was only 0.3% due to tough economic conditions experienced from 2019. Going into the second quarter, the effects of COVID-19 set on the sector which contracted to a negative growth of 4.3%, affecting Governments aspirations for economic diversification and job creation. With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projecting a contraction of 5.1% for the Zambian economy in 2020, manufacturing sectors negative performance will largely contribute to this outcome.
Nonetheless, projections disclose that the economy will recover to 0.6% in 2021. A robust manufacturing sector will play a key role in moving the economy towards recovery due to its strong backward and forward linkages with other sectors of the economy such as Agriculture, Mining, Construction, Tourism and the Wholesale and Retail Sector. Growth in the manufacturing sector is likely to foster broad-based economic recovery and speedy job creation. Hence, direct, joint, significant efforts towards supporting the growth and development of the manufacturing sector are required. That is why ZAM is playing its role by embracing innovation manufacturing for resilience economic recovery.
The Week will be launched by the Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry on the 22nd of November. From 25th November there will be a physical exposition of locally made Zambian products to the general public at East Park Mall and virtually on the Whova App. Please ensure to support your local goods and services to save jobs. On Thursday 26th November, policy makers, renowned international speakers, and captains of industry will undertake objective dialogue on practical measures to support adoption of innovative manufacturing to promote competitive innovative products and efficient production methods. The dialogue will promote research and development, spark ideas in innovative products and technologies and generate recommendations for policy reforms to spur innovation in Zambia’s manufacturing sector.
The Week will close off on the 27th of November with Manufacturer’s giving back to society by donating to the needy in the morning and end with the Prestigious Manufacturers Gala and Proudly Zambian Quality Awards ceremony in the evening – rewarding outstanding manufacturers for the resilient strides made 2020. As the Week draws nigh, I urge you to ‘Think Local First’ and drum support for your locally manufactured goods.
