South Africa opened a 500 million rand ($56.1 million) line of credit to neighboring Zimbabwe, Industry Minister Welshman Ncube said.

Ncube also revealed that Zimbabwe is engaging the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (PTA Bank) for lines of credit to revive the country’s comatose industry, a cabinet minister said here Saturday.

Ncube said the Zimbabwean government was negotiating with the Nairobi-based PTA Bank for a loan to help kick-start local industry which has been operating at below 20 percent of capacity.

“We are engaging the PTA Bank with a view to securing lines of credit for our industry,” Ncube said.

Zimbabwe requires about US$1 billion to revive its ailing industry in the next 10 months.

The money would allow Zimbabwean firms to increase capacity utilisation from the current 10 percent to 60 percent by the end of 2009.

The US$1 billion is part of about US$8.3 billion needed by the country to rebuild its economy and ease a humanitarian crisis caused by nine years of international isolation.