New law to force govt and private companies to purchase local goods and services coming

Secretary for Industry and Commerce Mrs Abigail Shonhiwa has revealed that the government is working on introducing a new Local Content Policy law. This law will compel government departments and private companies to purchase most of their goods and services in from local companies. The Local Content Regulations are likely to come in June.

Speaking to the Sunday Mail, Shonhiwa said:

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce is spearheading the process of formulating a Local Content Policy which will stipulate sectoral percentage thresholds for goods to qualify as locally-produced. Local Content Regulations will form a key part of Government’s broad industrialisation initiatives through maximising the localisation of supply chains.

The Policy is intended to buttress measures being implemented by Government to manage imports such as removal of products from the Open General Import Licence through various Statutory Instruments such as SI 64 of 2016.

…The ministry is now working on conducting a comprehensive market analysis/study to estimate, on a sectoral basis, the amount (in percentage terms) which can be produced locally and that which can be imported, among others. The study intends to avoid a situation where sectoral local content thresholds are thumb-sucked, leading to price increases and shortages on the local market.

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More: Sunday Mail