By HELEN ZULU – THE Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) has launched a competition intelligence unit in the honey sector under the ‘Promoting intra-regional trade in Eastern and Southern Africa’ project. The project is aimed at contributing to inclusive and sustainable export-led growth in the country by improving the competitiveness of producers, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and trade support institutions in the honey sector. The project is being implemented by ZDA in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ITC) and is funded by the Finnish Government. ZDA director export development Jonathan Simwawa said the project was vital in providing appropriate linkages required in the diversification of Zambia’s economy by concentrating on sectors that had the potential to create jobs and generate incomes for SMEs. He said this at the official launch of the competitive intelligence unit in the Zambia honey sector in Lusaka at the weekend. “The project aims at offering relevant trade intelligence to the local partners in the honey sector in order to strengthen their skills in the use of trade and market intelligence with the view of making effective business decisions. “This will also strengthen regional business contacts and networks in the country’s honey value chain, thus activating market opportunities,” Mr Simwawa said. He said the outcome of the project was increased export competitiveness of SMEs in selected agrifood value chains in Zambia through access to trade and market intelligence which was critical to international business success. Mr Simwawa said in the next steps, this would culminate in the establishment of the Zambian trade information network comprising relevant institutions such as the Zambia Honey Council (ZHC), agribusiness forum, commerce, trade and industry, among others. He said the Zambian trade information network would involve institutions in the honey sector. This would help create synergies where updated trade and business information would be shared to enable the sector players have central access to trade intelligence information.