CEDA blames low growth on mono-culture

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Friday November 12, 2010 00:00

 

Moribame was speaking at a manufacturing forum themed Quality in Manufacturing: Getting it Right the First Time, at GICC yesterday.

He said failure to look at what the country is in demand of and closing the import gap is a major challenge that continues to hold the sector from attaining growth.

'They continue to achieve lower growth than anticipated, at the rate of four percent per annum,' he said.

He added that lack of markets due to inward looking instead of broadening the market regionally or even beyond is another setback.

Moribame said the financial service provider has P85 million in this portfolio and 133 clients, each with an average investment of P640, 000.

Moribame added that the sector has no dominant sub-sectors, but milling has 11 percent, followed by brick moulding at 10 percent and bakery and non-metallic products at nine percent.

'Other manufacturing makes up 30 percent and these are other forms of manufacturing which can't really stand up on their own to make a substantive percentage,' he said.

Moribame said generally, the sector is not doing well. Over the past year, it has generally declined mainly due to the effects of the global downturn. He further said there is an increase in failing businesses.

'Repayment has declined over the year to-date and we are receiving less bankable proposals,' he said.

He urged entrepreneurs to identify growth areas and to take advantage of clusters, especially those in textiles as most lack capacity and bringing in their areas of specialisation could enhance production quality and quantity.

CEDA Business Advisory Manager, Petrus Sebina, stressed that clusters not only bring customers and suppliers together but also help create conditions for complementary activities to thrive.

Sebina urged manufacturers to embrace technology and knowledge-driven ways of doing business. 'New technologies prompt ways of thinking about processes, systems and manufacturing goals,' he said.

He added that some of the methodologies and technologies now being introduced in manufacturing include concurrent and collaborative engineering, collaborative manufacturing and increased use of visualisation technology.