Sadc Summit will foster economic diplomacy

Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter

IT is exactly a week before the country hosts the 7th Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Annual Industrialisation week, an auspicious event set to precede the summit to be held a week later upon which President Mnangagwa will take over the chairmanship of the regional bloc.

The industrialisation week that will run between 28 July and 2 August will not only put Zimbabwe in the forefront of the regional bloc, but provide an opportunity to foster economic diplomacy.

Being held under the theme, “Promoting innovation to unlock opportunities for sustainable economic growth and development towards an industrialised Sadc”, the 7th Annual Sadc Industrialisation Week aims to disseminate information on the Sadc industrialisation strategy and roadmap, commemorate Africa Industrialisation Day in the region in a much more effective way, intensify engagement and develop partnerships with development partners and other third parties to promote the Sadc Industrialisation Strategy at national and regional level.

The week is further aimed at identifying challenges faced by businesses in the region in the development and strengthening of Regional Value Chains (RVCs), engaging policymakers, private sector, academia, researchers, and other key stakeholders in policy dialogue to enhance work on industrialisation at both national and regional levels, increasing engagement on industrialisation strategy at national and regional level as well as share progress on the implementation of the previous declarations and success stories.

With the above being the specific objectives of the week-long industrialisation week, economic diplomacy is set to take centre stage not only to promote the member states’ prosperity but also present them with an opportunity to manipulate their foreign commercial and financial relations in support of their foreign policies.

Accordingly, economic diplomacy is a major theme of the external relations of virtually all countries. In Zimbabwe, the finance, trade, foreign affairs, tourism and investment promotion ministries, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), Zimtrade and the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (Zida) are all at the forefront of economic diplomacy.

Current trends globally, which Zimbabwe has also been part of, further include increasing collaboration between state and non-official agencies, and increased importance given to various global and regional trade bodies, the negotiation of free trade and preferential trade agreements, and accords covering investments, double taxation avoidance, financial services and the like.

Abroad, Zimbabwe has utilised embassies, consulates, and trade offices to handle economic diplomacy through deploying additional personal from Zida, Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and other trade organs to foster economic diplomacy. The main focus is on promotion, to attract foreign business, investments, technology and tourists.

As such, economic diplomacy connects closely with political, public and other segments of diplomatic work, in this case, the 7th Annual Sadc Industrialisation week.

According to international relations expert and political analyst Dr Leopold Chakanyuka, Sadc has always had a bias towards economic diplomacy through its treaty which has its objectives premised on development, economic growth, poverty alleviation, promotion of self-sustainable development, self-reliance as well as achieving sustainable utilisation of natural resources.

“When you look at all these objectives, they are mainly into economic development and areas to do with poverty alleviation which I think they recognise to be one of the causes of conflict or instability in many regions.

Lack of economic activity sometimes leads to conflict and so forth,” said Dr Chakanyuka in an interview with Sunday News.

Of note is how President Mnangagwa has accelerated the change from political diplomacy to economic diplomacy as he came up with Vision 2030 which seeks to take Zimbabwe to an upper middle-income economy.

“When President Mnangagwa assumed office, he said let us do away with politics, because we do not eat politics. We survive on development. We need the economy to be functioning, we need people to have jobs, we need people to make money, we need people to have a roof over their heads and there is supposed to be a form of economic development.

“You would see that from even his engagement that he has done with the outside world, he has been focused on the mantra ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’, making sure that we put laws that promote Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). We have seen a steady increase in FDI from countries such as China, United Kingdom, Russia among others who have all made tremendous efforts in terms of investments in Zimbabwe,” said Dr Chakanyuka.

Cognisant of President Mnangagwa’s thrust, Dr Chakanyuka said the country is well within what Sadc stands for — economic development and poverty alleviation. He said the country has taken an approach that seriously makes sure that economic development is felt by people even at the lowest level of society through the establishment of Village Business Centres, boreholes being drilled and irrigations being set up among other infrastructure development to facilitate economic development.

“The shift is a fulfilment of the Sadc objectives. For Zimbabwe to be at the centre this means we are going to facilitate different programmes that will facilitate regional economic integration. So far, as a region we have been doing well in terms of regional integration.

“We have visa free movement in a number of countries now which means there is free movement of people. Botswana and Namibia have removed passports completely and we now have a one-stop border post to facilitate the free movement of people.

The Sadc free trade area is another facility that can be utilised to promote intra-regional trade as part of the objectives of Sadc,” said Dr Chakanyuka.

Meanwhile, various arms of the State have also taken a lead to ensure they foster the country’s economic diplomacy and one of these has been the legislature.

Speaking at an induction seminar for the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Bulawayo recently, Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda said there is now a shift from political diplomacy to greater accent on economic diplomacy through accelerated trade between Zimbabwe and outside countries and it is incumbent on the nation to ensure that Zimbabwe is a competitive trade destination.

“President Mnangagwa has declared that Zimbabwe is an enemy to none and a friend to all. In that context, parliament is entrusted with the responsibility to promote the existence of cordial relations between Zimbabwe and other states in the spirit of multi-lateralism which respects each others country’s territorial sovereignty and integrity.

“That is why Section 12 of the Constitution bolsters our foreign policy posture which calls for the peaceful co-existence among states as it provides as follows that the foreign policy of Zimbabwe must be based on the principles of promotion and protection of the national interests of Zimbabwe; respect for international law; peaceful co-existence with other nations; and the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means,” said Adv Mudenda.

He said for parliamentarians to be adept in economic diplomacy as they shoulder the challenging assignment conjunctively with the responsible ministry, they should be well versed robustly with International Trade Agreements. These include the World Trade Organisation (WTO); Africa Agenda 2063; African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA); Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa); and Sadc Free Trade Area.

“The anchoring of these trade protocols should motivate you to find out what their impact is on Zimbabwe’s quest for enhanced economic diplomacy. You will have to find out whether or not Zimbabwe’s legal framework champions the ease of doing business within and outside Zimbabwe.

“Look at Zida whether it is aggressively promotive of economic diplomacy through synergised leverages of our embassies abroad. In this regard, you should be more conversant with Zimbabwe’s Trade Policies such as the National Trade Policy and Export Promotion Strategy (2020-2023) — now we are in 2024, what is the successor policy?” said Adv Mudenda. -@nyeve14