By Sharon Tawuya
Harare, (New Ziana) – President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday said stronger public-private partnerships are critical to boost intra-Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) trade, industrialisation and value addition.
Officially opening the 19th COMESA Business Forum and Exhibition preceding the bloc’s heads of State and Government Summit later this week, President Mnangagwa said investment remains low.
“This gap presents both a challenge, as well as an opportunity,” he said. “I challenge the Business Forum, therefore, to hold frank and bold dialogue that will help scale-up intra-regional trade and investment, identify practical solutions and forge partnerships that allow businesses to produce, invest, trade and create jobs across our Common Market, ” he said.
He said the Forum must end with concrete commercial outcomes.
“This Forum must in the end, connect buyers with producers, investors with bankable projects, manufacturers with regional suppliers, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises with distributors leading to new markets as well as increased intra-COMESA trade,” said Mnangagwa.
President Mnangagwa , who is the incoming COMESA chair, said investments must not remain isolated national projects but must connect economies through regional value chains.
He illustrated: “A Zimbabwean agro-processor should be able to source packaging from Zambia, access finance from a regional financial institution, and work with a Kenyan distributor to reach consumers across COMESA.”
President Mnangagwa said private sector players must move decisively from the export of commodities towards value addition, beneficiation and manufacturing.
He said Zimbabwe in December 2022 made the decision to restrict exports of unprocessed lithium ore in line with its determination to accelerate industrialisation and retain value at source.
“Similar openings exist in agro-processing, leather, cotton-to-clothing, pharmaceuticals, battery materials and clean-energy technologies,” he said.
He said COMESA, as a building block of the AfCFTA, must remove tariff and non-tariff barriers, harmonise trade procedures and resolve rules of origin and customs constraints, citing Zimbabwe’s modernisation of Beitbridge Border Post and upgrade of Chirundu One-Stop Border Post as commitment to connectivity.
“In Zimbabwe, we say, ‘A country is built, governed and prayed for, by its own people’.
” In this vein, I urge you, our private sector entities, to work in partnership with respective governments and development institutions to build the COMESA region we all want,” he said.
The Forum, running under the theme “One Market, One Future: Advancing Inclusive Industrialisation, Investment and Regional Integration in COMESA,” precedes Thursday’s 25th COMESA Summit where President Mnangagwa will assume the COMESA chairmanship.
New Ziana
