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Zim strives to boost intra-African trade

14 Dec, 2018 - 00:12 0 Views

eBusiness Weekly

Sydney Kawadza in Cairo, Egypt
Government thrust in rebuilding Zimbabwe’s infrastructure will boost the country’s efforts to increase trade with fellow African countries, a senior Government official has revealed.

In an interview on the side-lines of the inaugural Intra African Trade Fair currently underway at the Al Manara International Conference Centre here, Special Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Ambassador Stuart Comberbach, said while Government was in the process of ratifying the African Free Trade Area Agreement, it had to overcome infrastructure development gaps.

The IATF, the first of its kind on the continent, aims to provide a platform for promoting intra-African trade while facilitating information exchange in the sustainable implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

President Mnangagwa in April this year joined 48 other African Heads of State and Government in signing the ACFTA agreement in Kigali, Rwanda in March this year.

Call for African States to reverse Colonial Mentality

The IATF 2018 opened on Tuesday amid calls for African states to reverse the colonial strategy of divide-and-rule that affected trade among African states. Trade among African countries is currently pegged at 16 percent with the aim of increasing it by 22 percent in 2018.

Ambassador Comberbach said the lack of infrastructural development in some African states was a hindrance to intra-African trade.

“The major challenges which are there in order for us to produce competitively, between and among ourselves, you need efficient road networks, efficient power and water systems. All of these things are challenges for many African countries but we are actually fortunate in Zimbabwe that as part of Government’s programmes over a couple of years, this has been much of prioritisation as we move forward, as we address the issues of power, water, roads and the railway.”

He said, moving forward, Governments across Africa needed to address the issues affecting infrastructure development.

“You see the emphasis in the Second Republic, in the New Dispensation, has been put on, you the National Railway of Zimbabwe, getting rehabilitated. Getting ZISCO Steel rehabilitated, refurbishing the border posts, Beitbridge, in particular, but not only there, and turning into a one-stop border post.”

He said President Mnangagwa had already started engaging the South African government on turning the Beitbridge Border Post into one-stop border post.

Ambassador Comberbach said the expansion of the Hwange Thermal Power Station after the completion of the Kariba South Hydro-Power Station Expansion Programme pointed towards Government’s focus on addressing the challenges in infrastructure development shortages. He said value-addition to export products would also promote intra trade among African countries.

Call to create an integrated market

Meanwhile, in his address during the official opening, Afeximbank president and chairman of the Board of Directors, Professor Benedict Oramah, urged African states to create an integrated market for the continent.

“When Their Excellencies, African Heads of States, signed the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) in March 2018, they fulfilled the Political Will and sent a strong message to the World that Africa was ready to chart a new course, a path to economic independence and a look inward for industrial growth; but that was only the beginning!”

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