adminKudzanai Gerede
The business sector has been urged to take advantage of various regional and international trade agreements government has signed in recent years in facilitating export markets for local businesses. Addressing industry stakeholders at the launch of the country’s first ever competitiveness assessment document, the Zimbabwe National Competitiveness Report (ZNCR) last week in Harare, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the country should endeavor to maximize on the bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade agreements the country is appended to by forging robust competitiveness mechanisms to fully exploit the regional and international markets.
The ZNCR is one such mechanism to assess and identify competitiveness pointers and is a product of government and business sector which was promulgated and carried out by the National Economic Consultative Forum with the help of international competitiveness experts.
“Being competitive will enable us to exploit the advantages that come with regional integration. Of late we have been talking about the continental free-trade area under the auspices of the African Union and recently signed Tripartite Free Trade Area that integrate the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC).
“The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) bloc alone has a population of 632 million people which on its own is big enough to stimulate the industrial output of competitive countries. As a country we should endeavor to maximize on such arrangements,” said the Vice President.
“Furthermore, the country has active bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade agreements that we should fully utilize to optimize our competitive advantages in these markets. These include, Interim Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union that we ratified in March 2012 which allows duty-free quota, a free market access to e EU, the recently launched Zim-EU Information Centre which allows companies to interface directly with EU market, that is a critical step towards accessing regional and international markets for the benefit of our growing economy,” he said.
The Vice President said government was moving at a fast pace in addressing issues of competitiveness under the auspice of the newly adopted Rapid Results Approach Framework (RRAF).
He said under the RRAF government seeks to achieve instant goals to enhance competitiveness of business in the country such as the operation of the one stop investment shop, easing of business reforms such as the creation of the National Productivity Institution (NPI) a key institution to address labor issues, recent amendments to the labor laws and transformation of the Incomes and Pricing Commission to the National Competitiveness Commission which will be an advisory board to the national competitiveness issue.
On areas affecting competitiveness in the country, the Vice President factored out high cost of finance, outdated infrastructure, high labor costs, fanning up of the United States dollar against other currencies and the multiplicity of business licenses and levies which must be removed.
“Regarding access to finance which has been highlighted as number one problematic factor with regards to the ease of doing business in Zimbabwe, government through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and RBZ has made effort aimed at reducing the cost of borrowing to a much lower rate”, he added.
Howard Rosen a Competitive expert who also carried out the ZNCR, said whilst the World Bank index ratings were important as they had a bearing on the country’s ability to attract investment he however emphasized on the importance of a home-grown competitiveness report as it pinpointed areas which needed urgent attention.
The call comes at a time when the World Bank latest Doing Business report suggest that Zimbabwe has moved up 11 places to 79 from last year’s position 90 in the risk of getting credit index and 6 places to the positive to position 81 out of 189 in protection of minority investors index. The ZNRC noted that the country’s competitive advantages lay on its highly skilled human resources, natural resources and its geo-strategic location in the region.
It however pointed to high cost drivers in the production value chain as the major detriment, high labor costs, taxation and redundant levies among other issues.
Online Reporter