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Mike Bimha

Government has said there is need to address competitiveness challenges exporters are facing in order to increase export earnings.

Minerals and tobacco currently contribute over 80 percent to export earnings. Manufactured products and services, on the other hand,contribute less than 10 percent each to exports.

Addressing delegates at the Zimtrade meeting on Thursday, Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Mike Bimha, said in order to increase exports, there was need to tackle competitiveness.

“While we currently have various monetary and fiscal incentives available to support the growth of exports, the issue of competitiveness is weighing down on export performance. It is appreciated that for the country to achieve sustainable increase in export earnings, we need to address the competitiveness challenges that our exporters are facing within external markets in the region and beyond,” he said.

Minister Bimha said companies need to revise their business models and invest in new technologies in order to improve quality of products and survive global competition.

“The consumer of today is in need of a high quality and lower-priced product and this calls for efficiency in production and improvement in competitiveness and ensure export success.”

Minister Bimha said Zimtrade and business needs to develop a communication strategy that raise awareness on several issues, including export incentives and financial facilities available to support exports.

Zimbabwe is currently running trade deficits blamed on subdued exports. — New Ziana.