eBusiness Weekly
Manicaland province can benefit from the vast market on the African continent if it makes its mining, agriculture and tourism sectors fully operational, a senior government official has said.
Manicand province is endowed with vast minerals including gold and diamonds, tourism attractions, timber plantations and prime agricultural land.
Despite its vast natural and mineral resources base, the province does not have meaningful economic and infrastructural development to show for it.
Foreign Affairs and International Trade permanent secretary James Manzou said this while addressing a sensitization workshop on the African Continent Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in the esatern body city recently.
“Manicaland is indeed a blessed province for it is known for tourism, horticulture and mineral wealth such as diamonds. It is also renowned for timber,” he said.
“Therefore, Mutare stands to benefit a lot from the vast market of the African continent,” he added.
Manzou said within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the city of Mutare boasted of the Forestry Industry Training Centre and the Zimbabwe College of Forestry.
“We should be utilizing such opportunities to develop trade in services where we become the training centre for forestry in Africa,” he said.
He also applauded ongoing efforts to grow tea in the Honde Valley with assistance from Engineers without Borders, saying “such initiatives would assist small scale farmers”.
The government, he said, with support from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) was in the process of developing a strategy for the AfCFTA that would seek to identify the country`s competitive advantages.
“The strategy will be presented shortly. Stakeholders from the public and private sectors, women, youths, parliamentarians, academia and civil society should submit contributions that will enhance the strategy.
“I implore you to critically look at the strategy, with your industry in mind, and consider if it is a strategy that will propel you forward to increase your exports, and indeed expand your business. As government, we look forward to growing industries that will employ more, and begin to formalize the informal,” he said.
Manzou said to make Vision 2030 a reality, there was need come up with a relevant National Strategy that should be implemented, effectively addressing a multitude of needs, concerns and challenges that were confronting business communities.
“The public and private sectors should work together to strengthen our relations for the common good of our people as we strive to develop our economy,” he said.
He also said the Zimbabwe National Trade Policy Vision and Export Strategy towards the national Vision 2030 Agenda envisaged a transformed, dynamic and international competitive economy, driven by robust domestic and international trade.
“The Trade Policy vision and Export Strategy is to reform and open up Zimbabwe for free and fair trade in line with the multilateral trading system. Thrust will also be put on export and development and promotion, diversification of export products and export markets, and market access at negotiations at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels,” he said.
He added that the strategic goal was to facilitate the growth of the total exports of goods and services by at least 10 percent annually, and targets had been set at exports of $7 billion by 2023 and $14 billion by 2030.
AfCFTA brings together 54 of the 55 African Union nations in a trade pact to reduce barriers to imports and exports which prevents access to the US$3.5 trillion continental market of over a billion-people.
The free trade agreement will address barriers, put in place incentives for continental trade in Africa and also allow small and medium enterprises to access a bigger market and gain from economies of scale to facilitate industrialization. – New Ziana
