The Sunday Mail
THIS year’s 63rd edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), which begins on Tuesday, will be unique.
For the first time in two decades, the European Union (EU) delegation will be exhibiting.
It not only represents thawing relations between Harare and Brussels, but also instructively indicates that the latter is now ready to do business with the former.
The participation of Belarus, a new entrant, shows the extent to which the new political administration is opening new frontiers in search of both new markets and new investors to drive economic growth.
All in all, the number of countries that will be taking part at the trade fair has increased to 21 from 13 last year.
Some of the countries that will grace the event are Angola, Botswana, China, Japan, Iran, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, Zambia, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
The number of foreign companies has also similarly grown from 16 in 2022 to 25.
By the end of last week, the cumulative number of exhibitors had swelled to close to 600.
The involvement of countries and companies from across the world — Europe (both East and West); Asia; America; and Africa — clearly shows that, true to its word, Zimbabwe is a friend to all and an enemy to none, which is the hallmark of its new foreign policy agenda.
And, most importantly, it also indicates that not only is Zimbabwe prepared to do business with the world, but the world is now prepared to do business with Zimbabwe as well.
ZITF Company chief executive officer Dr Nicholas Ndebele made the same observation last week.
“The foreign participation element demonstrates that Zimbabwe has got opportunities that the foreigners observe and, of course, that Zimbabwe is keen and willing to engage and re-engage with foreigners to grow its economy, as well as strengthen its relations on the economic and political fronts,” he said.
The country’s success in finding new markets and investors feeds into its overall multi-pronged strategy to translate its diplomatic relations into economic gain. Clearly, the more we spread our tentacles across the globe, the more our exports grow, and the more prosperous we become.
Encouragingly, our exports have been growing in leaps and bounds over the past three years, from US$4,7 billion in 2020, US$6,3 billion in 2021 to US$7,02 billion last year.
Impressive!
And ZimTrade, the country’s trade development and promotion organisation, rightly believes that by pivoting on economic diplomacy, President Mnangagwa’s administration has paved the way for local products to penetrate non-traditional markets.
Shipments to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, have climbed from US$833 million in 2019 to US$2 billion in 2022.
UAE now contributes 32,3 percent of total exports.
Exports to China, Belgium, Zambia, Italy and the Netherlands have also grown exponentially over the past year.
And China is one of the leading emerging markets for local products, taking merchandise worth US$584,5 million in 2022, up from just US$3,25 million in 2019.
Exports to Italy — an EU member — markedly rose from US$2,3 million to US$61 million in the same period, while the value of goods shipped to the Netherlands jumped from US$2,71 million in 2019 to US$47,9 million in 2022.
But we still have a lot to do.
Last year, Cabinet approved the Zimbabwe National Trade Policy and Export Promotion Strategy, which targets to grow exports to US$14 billion — double last year’s amount — within the next seven years.
In essence, the specific objectives of the strategy are to promote free and fair trade; export-led production; and diversification of export products and markets in order to increase the national export of goods by at least 10 percent annually.
But it has to be remembered that Zimbabwe is also competing with other countries for the same market and must, therefore, necessarily gauge the quality of its goods and services, as well as its competitiveness, particularly in the wake of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which is slowly coming to life.
This is where ZITF comes in handy.
Suffice to say the inherent opportunities presented by this week’s international trade fair are limitless for both Government and local companies.
As emphasised by Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Mr Mike Kamungeremu last week, the local business community needs to take advantage of this platform to create fruitful business linkages that will unlock opportunities for strategic partnerships, funding and markets for locally produced goods.
World now engaging with Zim
The Sunday Mail
THIS year’s 63rd edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), which begins on Tuesday, will be unique.
For the first time in two decades, the European Union (EU) delegation will be exhibiting.
It not only represents thawing relations between Harare and Brussels, but also instructively indicates that the latter is now ready to do business with the former.
The participation of Belarus, a new entrant, shows the extent to which the new political administration is opening new frontiers in search of both new markets and new investors to drive economic growth.
All in all, the number of countries that will be taking part at the trade fair has increased to 21 from 13 last year.
Some of the countries that will grace the event are Angola, Botswana, China, Japan, Iran, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates, Zambia, Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
The number of foreign companies has also similarly grown from 16 in 2022 to 25.
By the end of last week, the cumulative number of exhibitors had swelled to close to 600.
The involvement of countries and companies from across the world — Europe (both East and West); Asia; America; and Africa — clearly shows that, true to its word, Zimbabwe is a friend to all and an enemy to none, which is the hallmark of its new foreign policy agenda.
And, most importantly, it also indicates that not only is Zimbabwe prepared to do business with the world, but the world is now prepared to do business with Zimbabwe as well.
ZITF Company chief executive officer Dr Nicholas Ndebele made the same observation last week.
“The foreign participation element demonstrates that Zimbabwe has got opportunities that the foreigners observe and, of course, that Zimbabwe is keen and willing to engage and re-engage with foreigners to grow its economy, as well as strengthen its relations on the economic and political fronts,” he said.
The country’s success in finding new markets and investors feeds into its overall multi-pronged strategy to translate its diplomatic relations into economic gain. Clearly, the more we spread our tentacles across the globe, the more our exports grow, and the more prosperous we become.
Encouragingly, our exports have been growing in leaps and bounds over the past three years, from US$4,7 billion in 2020, US$6,3 billion in 2021 to US$7,02 billion last year.
Impressive!
And ZimTrade, the country’s trade development and promotion organisation, rightly believes that by pivoting on economic diplomacy, President Mnangagwa’s administration has paved the way for local products to penetrate non-traditional markets.
Shipments to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, have climbed from US$833 million in 2019 to US$2 billion in 2022.
UAE now contributes 32,3 percent of total exports.
Exports to China, Belgium, Zambia, Italy and the Netherlands have also grown exponentially over the past year.
And China is one of the leading emerging markets for local products, taking merchandise worth US$584,5 million in 2022, up from just US$3,25 million in 2019.
Exports to Italy — an EU member — markedly rose from US$2,3 million to US$61 million in the same period, while the value of goods shipped to the Netherlands jumped from US$2,71 million in 2019 to US$47,9 million in 2022.
But we still have a lot to do.
Last year, Cabinet approved the Zimbabwe National Trade Policy and Export Promotion Strategy, which targets to grow exports to US$14 billion — double last year’s amount — within the next seven years.
In essence, the specific objectives of the strategy are to promote free and fair trade; export-led production; and diversification of export products and markets in order to increase the national export of goods by at least 10 percent annually.
But it has to be remembered that Zimbabwe is also competing with other countries for the same market and must, therefore, necessarily gauge the quality of its goods and services, as well as its competitiveness, particularly in the wake of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which is slowly coming to life.
This is where ZITF comes in handy.
Suffice to say the inherent opportunities presented by this week’s international trade fair are limitless for both Government and local companies.
As emphasised by Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Mr Mike Kamungeremu last week, the local business community needs to take advantage of this platform to create fruitful business linkages that will unlock opportunities for strategic partnerships, funding and markets for locally produced goods.
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