By Almot Maqolo.
Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South) – The Ministry of Industry and Commerce in partnership with ZimTrade will spearhead the formulation of the Zimbabwe National Export Strategy, which is expected to develop, facilitate and promote value added exports and spur economic growth for the country, an official said yesterday.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency exports declined by 28.66 percent in April 2017 when compared to that of January this year.
Comparatively, the import figure for April is 5.35 percent higher than
that for January.
Industry and Commerce deputy minister Chiratidzo Mabuwa told participants at the Ease of Doing Business, Rapid Results Initiative
(RRI) – End of Second 100 Days Review Meeting held in the capital that the strategy is going to tackle a number of issues that are affecting export growth.
The RRI was Launched in December last year and the first 100 Days came to an end on March 6 this year while the second 100 Days was launched on the same date.
“The stand-alone National Export Strategy is expected to leverage the
industrial and trade development policy frameworks that are currently under formulation,” Mabuwa said.
“The National Export Strategy is also one of the instruments that will help to achieve the objectives of the national development plan, the
Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset), especially under the Value Addition and Beneficiation cluster.”
Mabuwa encouraged all stakeholders particularly the private sector to
actively participate in the consultative process of the National Export Strategy which when in full scale is expected to drive the manufacturing sector and other quick-win sectors towards export orientation and international competitiveness.
Government and the private sector have come to a consensus that export growth is the most effective way by which the country can generate the
much needed foreign currency.
The successful implementation of the RRI recommendations is projected to curb some of the trade-impeding regulations and procedures.
ZimTrade Chief Executive Sithembile Pilime said with regard to legislative reforms, progress has been very slow.
“Although there have been efforts to ensure that the Statutory Instruments are changed, these have remained efforts to date.
“While the will is there, there appears to be bottlenecks in the drafting and enactment of the requisite statutory reforms,” she said.
However, some of the reforms have been implemented since the review meeting held in March this year, which includes reduction of processing times for export permits by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe and simplification of the process of raising CD1 forms by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
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