Online Reporter
Ivan Zhakata, Herald Correspondent
THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and ZimTrade have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the manufacturing sector and boost the country’s manufactured exports through improved competitiveness, value addition and coordinated policy support.
Speaking during the signing ceremony held in Harare yesterday, CZI chief executive officer Ms Sekai Kuvarika said the partnership seeks to build an export-oriented manufacturing sector capable of penetrating regional, continental and global markets.
“Today, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and ZimTrade are formalising a partnership around a very important national objective to build a more competitive export-oriented manufacturing sector that can successfully penetrate, compete and grow in regional, continental and global markets,” she said.
Ms Kuvarika said the country needed more manufacturers to enter export markets, while existing exporters should expand into new destinations and move towards higher-value products.
“We want more Zimbabwean manufacturers exporting. We want those already exporting to expand in more markets and move to higher value products. We want manufacturers to compete successfully on quality, productivity, standards, cost and reliability,” she said.
Ms Kuvarika said despite Zimbabwe’s participation in trade arrangements including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), manufactured exports account for less than 10 percent of total exports.
“This tells us something fundamental, that while market access is necessary, market access alone is not enough,” she said.
“We need to produce and we need more market penetration. Our manufacturers must be able to produce competitively in order to access all the markets that are available to them.”
Ms Kuvarika said CZI research has identified declining export destinations, increased concentration in primary and low-technology products and loss of competitiveness in some higher-value manufactured products.
The initiative will establish a structured platform bringing together exporting manufacturers, export-ready firms and other institutions to identify competitiveness challenges and develop practical solutions.
CZI will also undertake research into productivity, competitiveness, cost drivers and market constraints, while identifying regulatory and trade bottlenecks and channelling them into the policy-making process.
Ms Kuvarika said the initiative was part of CZI’s broader manufacturing transformation agenda, which seeks to build investment-ready, scalable and export-ready companies capable of participating in regional and global value chains.
“The success of this initiative should ultimately be measured by the growth in manufactured exports, investment, industrial capacity, productive employment and Zimbabwe’s participation in regional and global value chains,” she said.
ZimTrade chief executive officer Mr Allan Majuru said the partnership should produce measurable results rather than remain a ceremonial agreement.
“We want to make sure that we have got tangibles,” he said.
“Today it must not look like we just came here to eat. We want to make sure that there are tangible outcomes from this partnership.”
Mr Majuru said Zimbabwe continued to lose potential income and employment opportunities by exporting raw materials instead of processed products.
“We are exporting raw materials, we are exporting commodities. In short, we are exporting money, we are exporting jobs, so we need to localise those things through promoting value addition and manufacturing,” he said.
Mr Majuru said manufactured exports had been growing, but the country was targeting US$1 billion in manufactured exports.
“Our target is to make sure that manufactured exports reach a billion in exports,” he said.
Mr Majuru said competitiveness was critical for Zimbabwean companies to penetrate international markets.
“When we trade, nobody is going to say, ‘This is a manufactured product from Zimbabwe, let me buy it.’ We are competing with other countries. We need to make sure that when we produce, we are also competitive so that we can create markets,” he said.
Mr Majuru said AfCFTA has opened opportunities for Zimbabwean products, but had also exposed local companies to increased competition from producers across the continent.
He said there was a need to assess the export management capacity of companies and provide targeted training to manufacturers.
“We need to do assessments and then put in place solutions to capacitate manufacturers, whether big or small, so that they understand the basic concepts of exporting,” he said.
The partnership will also improve market intelligence, coordinate participation in international trade fairs and ensure export missions are targeted at specific opportunities in different markets, he said.
Mr Majuru called for an expansion of Zimbabwe’s manufacturing base, saying increasing the number of manufacturers would be critical to growing export volumes and diversifying export destinations.
He said ZimTrade will also work with relevant institutions, including the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency, to explore opportunities for attracting investment into manufacturing.
Mr Majuru said the success of the MoU will ultimately be determined by its practical outcomes.
“Let this MOU ultimately be measured not by the signatures we append today, but by the barriers addressed, the markets opened, the manufacturers supported and the growth of participation in regional and global value chains and markets,” he said.
The partnership comes as Zimbabwe seeks to diversify its export basket, promote value addition and leverage opportunities created by regional and continental trade agreements to accelerate industrialisation and economic growth.
