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 The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, President Robert Mugabe says the country stands to benefit from the adoption of a value-addition strategy as a way of enhancing the competitiveness of the country’s goods.
He was speaking during an interview on the eve of his 88th birthday.
Read full interview here
The President says the country which is currently exporting minerals such as platinum in unprocessed state stands to benefit from converting the vast locally available resources into finished products.
"In other words, that adding of value to our raw products, qualitative improvement, which Europe did when they started industrialising as much as possible, moving dependence on agriculture to dependence of manufactured food.
"That is yet to occur in Africa, in South Africa it is okay, here it had started okay a bit but we are now handicapped and that is what we must do, ensure that we raise the level of our economy. Take it from primary to secondary and that’s get it to the manufacturing stage where now you beneficiate your products," he said.
With the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) having agreed on the importance of member states to adopt value-addition strategies in order to transform the trading bloc from being a producer of primary goods into processed goods, the country has been called upon to embrace the strategy.
President Mugabe also stressed the significance of engaging the Asian countries given the shift in the global economic power where the Western nations are no longer major players in the global trade, adding that it is futile to hope that the West can redeem the country given the serious debt crisis which the EU trading bloc is faced with.
He said: "We are persons who look east and at the moment if you look west, Europe and America are looking east, what you encounter are eyes that are looking east and your eye is looking west.
"In other words, they have nothing to offer at all and it’s futile to hope that the West can redeem us.
"Even if we were in good books with Europe, Europe will never ever help you to the extent of your being able to transform your economy from being, you know, a primary producer to being a producer of secondary products."
It is estimated that approximately 80% of Zimbabwean cotton is subjected only to ginning before being exported, at least two-thirds of Zimbabwean timber is disposed of in plank condition, instead of being converted to furniture while platinum is exported in its mined, wholly unprocessed state.
Government has since prioritised the adoption of a value addition strategy under the Zimbabwe Industrial Development Policy whose other objective is to increase the manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP from 15% to 30% in the near future.
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