Online Reporter
Trade Focus
Allan Majuru
To give a brief background, ZimTrade’s job is to promote and develop trade.
So, ZimTrade has many reasons for coming to the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF).
For us, we bring small and medium enterprises (SMEs) so that they have a feeling of what it is like to participate in international trade fairs.
We also take them to Europe and China to participate in similar trade fairs.
We want them to experience, to learn and also sell their products locally and prepare to do the same internationally.
Most important for us is showcasing what Zimbabwe has to offer to other international exhibitors, and not only the local guys who come through. So, we take our SMEs through training to capacitate them to be competitive.
And we can only be competitive if we harness our comparative and competitive advantages. For instance, it is easier for us to grow baobab (mauyu). You don’t need to water it, you do not put in chemicals, but at the end of the day, you get an organic product.
So, which country is in the best position to produce baobab oil and baobab powder for export? It is Zimbabwe. So, our competitive advantage comes from focusing on our heritage.
And the reason we were at the ZITF was to make sure that the SMEs that are producing competitively get connected.
This is in line with the theme.
At our stand, most of the products we were showcasing had a heritage-based focus. But that does not mean we are ignoring the big companies. We work with the big companies as well because they export 80 percent of our products. But we also need to generate new exporters through our SMEs, who we envision becoming big companies of tomorrow.
So, we also want to widen our export base.
Aligning export promotion in line with Vision 2030
For us, the whole focus is on having an industrialised and export-led economy for Vision 2030. And we have done a lot of things in that respect.
For the big companies, if you look at what the Government has done in terms of improving the ease of doing business, that has facilitated a lot of trade to happen.
So, the big companies are happy.
And more is continuing to happen. So, the Government has done a very good job in that regard. Now, I think the onus is on us to also fix our internal capabilities so that we become more competitive. Also, looking at the SMEs, for us, our focus is on exporting goods and services.
On the goods part, I think we are doing quite well. But we have to put more focus on services because they are a key component when it comes to exporting.
I was discussing with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Professor Amon Murwira and he was telling me that we need to move to a process where we now export formulas. In the case of the Coca-Cola we drink, they don’t bring bottles — they bring a formula.
So, we have to concentrate on what we have an advantage in — our baobab, marula and moringa, et cetera.
There is a formula in those products that can help us make healthy edible products or pharmaceutical products. So, we should now rewire ourselves to focus on that.
In that way, our exports can boom massively. We should be growing our exports by 10 percent for goods and 15 percent for services every year for us to meet our target by 2030. Remember, we are very good when it comes to construction services and electrical engineering, et cetera.
So, a huge focus is also going to be put on those services to make sure that we achieve our targets.
Improving competitiveness of Zim’s products
What we have done over the years is to put in place a lot of programmes to support our exporters. I am going to align more with SMEs because I think this is the context that suits them best and why we went to ZITF.
We put in place a programme called Eagles Nest that targets youths who are less than 35 years old. And this programme has been running for the past four or five years.
It has generated a lot of new businesses.
We also have a programme called Next She Exporter focusing on women-led enterprises. And there is a deliberate reason we are focused on the youth and women-led enterprises. Two to three weeks ago, we launched the SheTrades Hub in partnership with the International Trade Centre of Geneva that focuses on capacitating and linking women to international markets.
When you export, you know the market is there, but you need to have quality goods adhering to the buyer’s certifications.
That is very key.
So, for the first time, I think we have managed to get five women-led enterprises certified in markets that are not commonly certified. So, that is a plus for us.
And we want to now expand on that to make sure that in terms of our heritage and indigenous knowledge, we focus on the same to grow our exports. And we are now even partnering with the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (ARIPO) and the Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office (ZIPO).
This is because sometimes you get moringa being patented by another country, but it is coming from here. So, we want to make sure that for us to succeed in exports, we have to own what is ours.
Successes recorded under NDS1 and NDS2 in boosting exports
Under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), we exceeded our target in terms of exports. I think we ended on US$10 billion when our target was around US$8 billion.
And the good thing is our export basket is even more diversified.
You would find our products in Singapore or Vietnam, countries that you would not ordinarily hear or talk of. In line with the economic diplomacy thrust, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has put a lot of focus on our embassies to focus on economic diplomacy.
For us to be friends with any nation, the key thing is trade. So, we are using trade as a gateway for promoting relations with other countries.
And also, our ministry has been at the forefront of making sure that we remove non-tariff barriers to entry.
You might have heard of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
It is a huge gateway for us to access a market of 1,3 billion people.
We are putting a lot of focus on that through the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Remember, we were recently the chair of SADC and this year we are the incoming chair for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). So, we are also going to put a lot of focus on trade to make sure that intra-regional and intra-African trade also grows. And also, quite importantly, on the sidelines of ZITF, we held a business forum between Zimbabwe and Botswana.
The whole idea was to make sure that if we trade more with our neighbours, the geopolitical challenges will not affect us.
Right now, it is difficult for us to send goods to the Middle East because of what is happening.
However, it is much easier for us to trade with Zambia, Malawi or the Democratic Republic of Congo. So, the focus is also on making sure that we have a strong presence within the region, whilst we maintain our partners in the world.
Overall, what is important is to diversify our exports.
Allan Majuru is the chief executive officer of ZimTrade. He was speaking at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair last week in an interview with the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Braodcasting Services.
