Exploit DRC market, ZDA prods businesses
By Kabanda Chulu
Fri 26 Aug. 2011, 08:40 CAT
ZAMBIAN entrepreneurs should take advantage of the huge prevailing consumer market opportunities offered by the DR Congo that is accounting for over 39 per cent of total non-traditional export earnings, says ZDA director for export promotions Glyne Michelo.
During the 11th trade mission to the DR Congo that started yesterday in Lubumbashi, Michelo stated that there was an absence of industrial activities and commercial agriculture in that country because it was not fully developed.
"This means that most basic food requirements and industrial products have to be imported thus offering a large market for Zambian exporters especially of agricultural products, food items and industrial products," Michelo stated. "The DR Congo has continued to be an important market for various Zambian products.
With its population of 68 million people, the country provides the largest consumer market for Zambian goods in the region with minimal transportation costs in comparison with other countries in the region."
He stated that Zambians should aspire to maintain a foothold in the market and expand its market share and also introduce new companies. "It is imperative for ZDA to relentlessly undertake such export promotional activities.
It is for this reason that the two governments have initiated the Bilateral Trade Agreement that will assist in removing most hurdles companies face in trading with the DR Congo market which is a highly lucrative market," stated Michelo.
"This market, especially the Katanga Province, is one of the largest markets
for Zambia's Non-Traditional Exports and is by far the largest single market in the COMESA market with immense potential for Zambian companies to significantly increase their export earnings."
In 2009, the DR Congo market accounted for US $567.3 million worth of Zambian products against US $439.65 million recorded in 2008.
This accounted for 39.8 per cent of total non-traditional export earnings for the period under review and this figure is only for merchandise exports and excludes services.
The trade mission will run concurrently with a solo exhibition where Zambian companies will showcase their products to their Congolese counterparts and be provided with a platform for matchmaking way of one-on-one meetings.
In 2010, the trade mission recorded confirmed orders valued at US $21,595,460 against the confirmed orders valued at US $6,814,800 in 2009 for the supply of various goods and services.
Labels: DRC, GLYNE MICHELO, ZDA
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Use professional marketers, ZIM advises govt
By Kabanda Chulu in Kitwe
Tue 26 July 2011, 13:59 CAT
ZAMBIA Institute of Marketing (ZIM) has advised the government to utilise the professional expertise of marketers in the quest to market and brand the country as a good and stable investment destination.
And ZDA director Glyne Michelo has challenged marketers to increase their marketing activities because the designation of the country as lower middle income will result in increased trade and investment for Zambia.
During the Copperbelt regional marketing conference in Ndola, ZIM president David Kombe said marketers were major stakeholders in all developmental programmes.
“It is for this reason that as marketers, we have been and will always be ready to take up the challenge when called upon to offer professional advice on the marketing and branding of Zambia,” said Kombe.
“We must admit that the opportunity to work with government has always eluded us due to various unknown reasons but we hope that this can be a starting point for collaboration between government and ZIM. We know that there are numerous developmental projects in government that are marketing related and ZIM can take up and offer professional advice and direction for effective results.”
Presenting a paper titled ‘Business and investment opportunities on the Copperbelt: role of marketing’, Michelo said marketing and trade play a vital role in the economic growth and overall development of a nation.
“Marketing creates a platform for Zambia to undertake export promotion in areas where it has a comparative advantage. Marketing creates the platform to undertake market research on viable markets for Zambian produced goods,” Michelo said.
“With Zambia now being designated a lower middle income country, it is envisaged that the marketing activities will increase since it is visualised that Zambia will record an increase in investments which will lead to an increase in trade and therefore this will require an increase in marketing activities.”
He said government was putting in place measures to enhance investment promotion on the Copperbelt.
“There is need to introduce a one-stop shop on the Copperbelt by ZDA to assist business houses bring down the cost of doing business in the short-term and reduce gaps in policy implementation thereby assisting local manufacturing sector respond to overcome challenges on the ground,” said Michelo.
Labels: GLYNE MICHELO, MARKETING, ZAMBIA INSTITUTE OF MARKETING, ZDA
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ZDA cites mining for FDIs surge
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Tue 23 Nov. 2010, 04:01 CAT
FDI pledges coming into Zambia in the first 11 months of this year jumped to US$ 4.3 billion, surpassing the year-end target of US$ 3 billion. Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) director for export promotions Glyne Michelo attributed the surge in Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to increased growth of manufacturing and mining sectors in the aftermath of the global economic recession which mopped up liquidity from the key global markets last year.
Michelo said the United Kingdom, Belgium, South Africa, China and India continued to be the main source of FDIs into the country, collectively constituting about 70 per cent of Zambia’s total FDI inflows in 2009.
“The outlook for 2010 looks promising with over US$ 4.3 billion investment pledges and pledged employment of 36,000 jobs already recorded between January to November 2011 against a target of US $3 billion pledges for the year,” Michelo said in an interview.
Michelo said the manufacturing and mining sectors generated the most interest of planned investments in 2010.
“The sector distribution indicates that the manufacturing sector has generated the most interest in terms of planned investments in 2010 with agro-processing projects such as Bedford Renewable Energies, Kaidi Biomass Zambia Limited and Agzam Project Developers Limited, and other investments in the sector valued at US $1.6 billion topping the list making up 37 per cent of the pledges, and pledged employment of 19,500 jobs in the manufacturing sector,” Michelo said.
He said increased foreign capital into the mining sector had been buoyed and sustained by major pledged investments into key mining operations like Luanshya Copper Mines which Chinese owners resuscitated after its previous owners abandoned it at the height of the global economic meltdown which depressed international metal prices.
“…Konnoco Underground Mining as well as the planned capitalisation of Mamba Collieries by the new owners - Nava Bharat of Singapore, all totalling US $1.4 billion – about 34 per cent of the pledges - and pledged employment of 3,800 jobs in the mining sector have helped to increased foreign direct investments inflows into the mining during the period under review,” said Michelo.
Labels: FDI, GLYNE MICHELO, NEOLIBERALISM, ZDA
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Zambia needs to secure its market position in the DRC - Michelo
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Fri 29 Oct. 2010, 04:01 CAT
ZAMBIA needs to secure its market position in the DRC by introducing new companies, Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) director of export promotion Glyne Michelo has advised.
Delivering a key note speech on Wednesday on the occasion of the 10th trade mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Michelo said there was need for Zambia to maintain and expand its market share in the vast Central African country.
At the moment, DRC - mainly Katanga Province - is the largest export market for Zambian non-traditional export products and is the largest in both the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).
Zambia this year plans to boost its exports to DRC to more than US $2 billion from US $1.4 billion in 2009, taking advantage of the flexible trade terms.
“In order for us to maintain and expand the market share for Zambian companies and also introduce other companies,” said Michelo who is also in charge of market development at ZDA, “it is imperative to relentlessly undertake such promotional activities that enable exporters from the two countries to build their capacities and network among themselves for the common good.”
Michelo led export-ready companies dealing in various non traditional goods and services that included agro-seed, cement, timber, protective clothing, safety clothing, leather and leather products, engineering products, pharmaceutical products, food items among others.
“I am certain that the business people from the two countries will use this platform to strengthen their business links that will culminate into actual execution of business transactions,” said Michelo.
“It is gatherings like this that we will be able to put faces to our emails and telephone conversations and this will enhance our market visibility and develop relations that are mutually beneficial.”
Labels: DRC, GLYNE MICHELO, TRADE
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Leather investor calls for value addition to products
By Florence Bupe
Thu 14 Jan. 2010, 04:00 CAT
A LEATHER industry investor Mumena Wright has called for value addition to leather products to address the challenge of global market competition.
And Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) export promotion director Glyne Michelo has noted the need for the enhancement of leather industry operations as it has the potential to become one of the country’s top foreign exchange earners.
In an interview, Wright said the leather industry was faced with a number of challenges that were inhibiting its growth.
“We are facing a lot of challenges in the leather industry, the most critical of which is globalisation. We are facing a lot of competition from imported products, and we are not able to compete favourably because the cost of processing leather in Zambia is very high, which makes our products uncompetitive,” she said.
Wright said the global economic meltdown had also negatively affected the industry, with business going down by almost 50 per cent.
“The global financial crisis had a serious impact on the leather industry and business dropped by about 50 per cent. People’s disposable income reduced and they opted to buy alternative materials such as imported fabric and canvas,” she said.
Wright also complained that imitations had worked against the development of the leather industry.
Wright urged the private sector to partner with government in improving the quality of Zambian leather products to be able to compete favourably with other products on the regional and global market.
“Government is trying to help the industry through certain policies and incentives, but we as private sector players have failed to seize these opportunities,” said Wright.
And during a leather industry sensitisation workshop, Michelo urged leather industry players to enhance their operations and take advantage of export markets such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, which were growing markets.
The leather industry in 2008 earned the country about US $10 million.
Michelo bemoaned the general lack of value addition to leather products, resulting in weak linkages with communities, and therefore, inadequate impact on the improvement of living standards for citizens.
Labels: GLYNE MICHELO, LEATHER, MUMENA WRIGHT, ZDA
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ZDA notes slow diversification on exports
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 5:07:32 PM
ZDA director Glyne Michelo has observed that Zambia is not moving fast to diversify its export base for non-traditional exports as the class of goods and market destinations have remained unchanged in the last seven years.
Michelo however said the country’s National Tradition Exports (NTEs) have grown from US $264 million in 2000 to the current US $1.2 billion for this year.
He said according to official data from Zambia Development Agency (ZDA), the country exported NTEs worth US $469. 4 million during the first quarter of this year, double the export earnings during the same period last year which were about US $208.6 million.
He said this when he officiated at the Talier Presentation of the US Specialty Food Market held at ZDA offices on Monday.
“However, the range of products in the export portfolio remains confined to a few product groups mainly in commodities showing that very little or inadequate value addition is taking place in Zambia,” Michelo said. “Furthermore, Zambia continues to export to the same traditional markets in the region despite various GSP market access initiatives such as the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) of the United States, Japanese market access initiative and Canadian market access initiative among others.”
Michelo lamented that NTE exports to the US market had declined to US $2 million in 2008 from US $6 million in 2000.
“The trade balance between Zambia and US in 2008 stood at US $38 million in favour of the US,” said Michelo. “There is need to boost export production so as to take advantage of the AGOA opportunity and consequently reduce trade deficit and imbalance.”
Some of the Zambian products eligible for AGOA include fresh fruits and vegetables, cut flowers, textile products, handicrafts and curios.
Labels: GLYNE MICHELO, ZDA
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‘Investment in power generation will help mitigate anticipated reduced inflows’
Written by Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 8:39:56 AM
ZAMBIA Development Agency (ZDA) director Glyne Michelo has said aggressive investment in projects like power generation and petroleum exploration will help mitigate the anticipated reduced investment inflows into the country.
The government has this year repeatedly affirmed intentions to lure foreign direct investments (FDI) as a way of mitigating the effects of the current global economic crisis.
But some analysts contend that the country is this year expected to receive a severe reduction in the amount of investments as investments funds in global market becomes scarce.
In an interview, Michelo said while some planned investment in the mining sector had been put on hold temporarily due to lower copper prices arising from depressed demand, net investments flows into the country were not expected to drastically decrease.
"The country is still receiving investments flows in other sector of the economy such as tourism agriculture and construction, medical, finance education," Michelo said. "Further, countries like China and India have continued to be good sources of investment inflows. We also expect that companies in the EU, North America and Japan will be repositioning themselves to move once the slump begins to look up and we will be targeting them. New and emerging sources such as South Africa, South Korea, Nigeria, Brazil and the Middle East and Australia will also be pursued."
Michelo said what was important now was to continue the process of economic diversification which was a pre-requisite to insulating the country against adverse economic and financial turmoil.
"As you know government, has already prioritized agriculture to ensure food security and export surplus produce. This will translate into ZDA wooing investors in agriculture and beyond," said Michelo.
"The irrigation fund, provisions of resources to the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission, development of the Chambishi and Lusaka multi-facility economic zones, provisions of resources to Nansanga farm block and infrastructure development at Kasaba bay, the encouragement of the private sector to invest in power generation and promotion of exploration of petroleum in the country are all projects that will forestall the current downturn and position us for subsequent period."
Labels: ENERGY, GLYNE MICHELO, ZDA
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