.Mwanakatwe

By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –

COMMERCE, Trade and Industry Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe has urged the Zambia Association of Manufacturers (ZAM) to partner with the Government in addressing challenges faced by the industry in readiness for the just-launched COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA).
At a June 10 meeting of the Common Market for Eastern and South Africa (COMESA), Eastern African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC), TFTA was launched setting the stage for the establishment of a single market for the 26 African countries in the Eastern and Southern African regions.
In June 2011, the leaders launched the negotiations for the establishment of COMESA, EAC and SADC TFTA which has now been realised within the set time frames.
Ms Mwanakatwe said there was need for manufacturers to address the challenges which she said could impact the country’s participation in what Government believed would create a much bigger market for the industry in the next two years.
The minister said this during the 29th ZAM annual general meeting which was held under the theme ‘Manufacturing for accelerated structural transformation and sustainable socio-economic development’ in Lusaka at the weekend.
This year’s theme seeks to highlight the important role manufacturing has played and continues to play in transitioning countries from being economically volatile primary commodity-dependent and poor, to being economically stable, high value-added production-based wealthy countries.
Ms Mwanakatwe said she did sign the declarations, but that she did not sign the agreement because it had to go through a process and also go through the office of the Attorney General to ensure everyone at Cabinet level was made aware of what was required for Zambia to be a member of the tripartite.
“I am saying so because you will be part of this regional grouping that is boasting of 615 million people as a market and this will be a ready market for us in the next two years.
“Now, when I look at the challenges manufacturers in the country are going through, I am saying to myself, are we ready for the three regional groupings that are coming together? The answer is, we can get ready, but I don’t think we are 100 per cent ready,” Ms Mwanakatwe said.
She said Zambia was not ready because manufacturers were not able to penetrate within Zambia with a market of 14 million people, apart from Zambia Sugar and Lafarge.
At the same occasion, ZAM outgoing president Bright Chunga said there was need to re-align Zambia’s procurement policy and practices to the job creation and industrialisation strategy if the country had to transform, create jobs and set itself on a sustainable development path.
Dr Chunga also said there was need to promote competitive access to raw materials by ensuring that the country’s tax policy did not penalise imports of inputs while allowing finished products duty-free entry.
“We need to re-align our procurement policy and practices to the job creation and industrialisation strategy if we are to structurally transform, create jobs and set itself on a sustainable development path,” Dr Chunga said.
Zambia’s local manufacturing industry’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) has over the years averaged about eight per cent.
In 2014, the sector was estimated to have accounted for 8.1 per cent of GDP and has continued to contribute marginally to employment, accounting for just about three per cent of the overall formal workforce.
Dr Chunga said that despite the manufacturing sector contributing to the country’s GDP, it had not performed to the association’s expectation.
“We are now faced with the threat of the performance falling below these figures, unbelievably, in the face of huge opportunities for manufactured products both in the local and international markets,” he said.