Zimbabwe seeks to promote local vehicle assembly

Measure aimed at enhancing the vehicle assembling industry's capacity and boost employment in the country.

Zimbabwe is seeking to push through a policy promoting imports of knocked-down vehicle kits and impose higher tariffs on imports of completely built-up (CBU) vehicles, reports The Pretoria News. The country's finance minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said last week that this measure was aimed at enhancing the vehicle assembling industry's capacity and boost employment in the country. "We want to assemble vehicle products for the local market as a way to create employment and grow the revenue base for the government. We however are willing to complement that production through imports which will cater for the other categories of the market," said Dawson Mareya, a senior executive at Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries (WMMI), Zimbabwe's biggest vehicle assembler.