Trade vital for sustainable economic growth - expert

Trade vital for sustainable economic growth - expert
By Fridah Zinyama
Wednesday March 07, 2007 [02:00]

A TRADE expert has observed that Zambia has no hope of attaining sustainable economic growth without a substantial increase in its productive and trade capacity. In a presentation during a meeting organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Doha, Quatar, Dennis Chiwele of Zambia’s DNC Consultants said the private sector should actively be involved in the country’s development strategy and efforts to reduce poverty. “This means that sector-specific strategies should adopt trade as a crosscutting issue and incorporate the need to promote and facilitate trade,” he said.

Chiwele said the use of the value chain approach by the private sector and government in identifying constraints that exporters experience and using the results was good, as it would stimulate the growth of agricultural trade. “There is need for support to both private and government institutions which promote trade and put measures that ensure exporters deal with both the supply and market penetration,” he said.

Chiwele added that there was also need for government to reduce the cost of doing business, as it would improve the business climate in the country. “Raising the country’s competitiveness in foreign markets can be done by reducing the cost of doing business in Zambia which has been the main complaint of producers in the country,” Chiwele said. He said urgent measures needed to be put in place to remove inefficiencies in key infrastructure sectors such as transportation and telecommunication. “On transportation, the current strategy of continuous rehabilitation of key roads is paying dividends and should be sustained and the concessioning of Zambia Railways is likely to raise efficiency of this railway system,” he said.

Chiwele emphasised the need for Zambia to become the hub for regional air transport but that this could only be accomplished with more investment into the sector. “The liberalisation of the telecommunication system in the country will also go a long way in bringing efficiency, gains and reducing tariffs,” Chiwele said. He also stressed the need for further deepening of financial markets, with a view to bringing down interest rates to make the cost of borrowing more affordable especially for small and medium enterprises and help to reduce exchange rate volatility.