Zim urged to embrace ZiG to boost competitiveness ...

Zim urged to embrace ZiG to boost competitiveness in the Africa Continental Free Trade Area

Zim Now Writer

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries has urged Zimbabweans to embrace the Zimbabwe Gold currency as it would help boost the country’s competitiveness in the wake of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.

Speaking during the AfCFTA Tariff Offer dissemination workshop organised by the Competition and Tariff Commission and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries on Tuesday, economist Dr Reneth Mano said embracing the local currency would go a long way in improving the local industry’s competitiveness in face of potential cut-throat competition to be caused by the AfCFTA.

“We should be confident in our local currency, because its survival means our survival. If ZiG does not work, our industry also will not survive. The continued use of the US dollar will make us a supermarket economy as soon as this AfCFTA comes into effect.

“Making ZiG work should be the consensus or rallying point if we are serious about making wins in the AfCFTA environment. We should try to deal with our macroeconomic environment and address the difficulties in doing business,” Dr Mano said.

CZI chief economist, Dr Cornelius Dube, said doing business in Zimbabwe is not easy and the macro-economic environment needed to be sorted for local industry to be competitive.

“Cost per unit for our local companies is actually higher compared to regional peers because here someone is using an inferior type of technology, capital costs are high.

“About 18 percent of total overheads are just compliance costs. The regulators try to collect as much as they can from the business,” Dr Dube said.

Tawanda Katsande of CTC, urged local companies to pull up their socks and produce quality and competitively properly priced goods so that locals do not end up preferring foreign cheap substitutes.

He called upon relevant authorities and the private sector to ensure a workable macroeconomic environment that lessens the cost of doing production locally, particularly some issues to do with availability and affordability of electricity.

To be competitive, Katsande said local companies should keep in touch with new technologies for efficient production processes that lessen cost of production.

He said some of the derelict equipment still being used in industry consumes a lot of electricity, while there are now alternatives that use lesser and cheaper electricity.

“There is going to be increased competition in Zimbabwe because of the US dollar, we are now reluctant about the US dollar while other countries are hungry for it, goods are going to come here even at lower cost so that they can access the greenback,” Katsande said.

The Competition and Tariff Commission in collaboration with CZI has been conducting awareness workshops on Zimbabwe’s preparedness in terms of the implementation of AfCFTA mainly focusing on tariff offer.