TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Frederick Shava, has challenged local companies to inculcate and entrench an export culture to reap benefits from the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Shava, who spoke at the launch of the Intra African Trade Fair (IATF) campaign on Tuesday in Bulawayo, also said companies should also diversify export products and markets.
The second edition of the IATF will be held from in Durban, South Africa, from November 15 to 21, 2021.
Zimbabwe is targeting to achieve US$14bn annual exports by 2030, encapsulated in the country’s Trade Policy and the Export Strategy under the target 7/14 framework.
“The national Trade Policy and Export Strategy contains strategies to help Zimbabwe grow its total exports by at least 10% annually and places emphasis on exports of value-added goods and services. The Trade Policy targets to increase exports to US$7bn by 2023 and to US$ 14bn by 2030,” Shava said.
He called for concerted efforts to diversify the export products and export markets for the country urging the private sector to play its part while the government will facilitate the production of goods and services for export.
ZimTrade will coordinate Zimbabwe’s participation at the IATF.
It also coordinated Zimbabwe’s participation in the inaugural IATF event held in Egypt in 2018. It is understood that investment deals worth US$32bn were concluded.
Shava applauded ZimTrade for adopting an inclusive approach.
He said an integrated African market is also likely to attract increased foreign direct investment to the benefit of Zimbabwe.
The easing of trade between African countries, Shava said, will facilitate the establishment of regional value chains in which inputs are sourced from different African countries to add value in Zimbabwe, before exporting externally.
“An integrated African market would facilitate the integration of Zimbabwe and other African countries in the various stages of production according to their competitive advantages, thus fomenting also the creation of new regional value chains that could eventually become part of the global value chains.
ZimTrade CEO, Allan Majuru said local companies should focus more on exporting value-added products to regional markets as these are easy to access, riding on bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.
“What we are working towards, through the participation at IATF is to unlock export opportunities and increase the nation’s exports, which have been growing over the past few years,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s exports to the world have grown from US$2.6bn in 2010 to US$4.4bn in 2020.
He said ZimTrade has also created a one-stop online store for Zimbabwean businesses called Shop@Zim, as well as a packaging portal.
“These platforms, which are being marketed across the world, will improve the visibility of Zimbabwean products. I urge local industries to take advantage and register so that they get a free listing of their products,” Majuru said.
