Business Reporter
The COMESA region must shift its economic focus from extraction and simple trade towards producing, processing and adding value within the bloc, the chief executive of ZimTrade has said, as he urged members to treat the region’s $1 trillion economy as a unified market.
Delivering welcome remarks at the 19th COMESA Business Forum at the Harare International Conference Centre, Mr Allan Majuru told delegates that while the region’s mineral, agricultural and tourism endowments offered a strong base, “the future of COMESA is no longer in extraction and neither is it in simply trade”.
“The future is to produce more, process more and add value more within our region,” he said, addressing a gathering that included President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, COMESA Secretary General Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe, ministers, ambassadors and business leaders.
The forum is being held on the margins of the 25th COMESA Summit of Heads of State and Government under the theme “One Market, One Future: Advancing Inclusive Industrialisation, Investment and Regional Integration in COMESA”. It follows the COMESA Green Industries Connect, held yesterday, which examined the circular economy, electronics and e-waste, leather, and plastics and packaging. An exhibition featuring exhibitors from Zimbabwe and across the region is running from 19 to 21 October alongside the programmes.
Mr Majuru said the bloc’s population of more than 640 million represented a vast customer base, estimating that if every COMESA citizen bought an additional $10 of products from another member country, total trade would grow by more than 50 percent to almost $21 billion.
Mr Allan Majuru told delegates that while the region’s mineral, agricultural and tourism endowments offered a strong base, “the future of COMESA is no longer in extraction and neither is it in simply trade”.
He noted that COMESA covers 11.8 million square kilometres — an area larger than the European continent — stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean and touching the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
“COMESA is a $1 trillion dollar economy. If we work as a unified force, no one will be able to ignore such a big economy,” he said.
“The opportunity is not overseas or hidden somewhere far; the opportunity is right next to you and is wondering why you are knocking on far away doors, leaving that of your neighbour.”
On logistics, he argued that transport connectivity should not be a constraint, noting that five of the top seven airlines in Africa come from COMESA member countries.
“We don’t have an aviation challenge; we have a matchmaking challenge which I believe we are going to solve during this Summit and Business Engagement,” he said.
He also challenged delegates to address the gap between institutional integration and practical commerce. “Our institutions have often run ahead of our markets. We have built the courts, the banks, the regulators and the payment systems. The question for this Forum is why our trucks, our invoices and our payments do not yet move as freely as our treaties do,” he said.
Mr Majuru commended the region’s leaders for creating a platform where business, experts, facilitators and policy makers can convene to map the way forward. He closed with a spirited promotion of the host nation, urging delegates to source from, invest in and visit Zimbabwe.
