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Minister Bimha

Golden Sibanda Business Reporter
The Southern African Development Community members will soon hold a special summit on industrialisation after current chair Zimbabwe convinced the states to develop their industrial capacities before opening up their markets. Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha said in an interview last week that a meeting of ministers and officials ahead of the Sadc Heads of State and Government Summit in Victoria Falls ended in a stalemate over the issue of industrialisation.

However President Mugabe eventually convinced Heads of State following a closed door meeting after the official opening that Sadc should first develop its industrial capacity before opening up markets.

“There was more of a stalemate on the issue of industrialisation versus market access. There were some countries that were keen to see market access strategy being achieved in a short time,” he said.

The 34th ordinary meeting of the Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community was held in Victoria Falls, from August 17 to August 18 2014.

“Our opposition as Zimbabwe was that industrialisation comes first. Then, we can talk about market access. It is very logical, that we build the capacity to produce goods, then we can talk about market access, where to sell and . . . talk about trade,” Minister Bimha said.

Minister Bimha said after the President convinced his fellow heads of State and Government on the need to prioritise industrialisation, the matter was referred to a council of ministers for discussion, which would also not come up with a conclusive position.

President Mugabe, Minister Bimha said, managed to put his point across after reminding fellow heads of Government of the need to observe goals and aspirations of frontline States that gave birth to Sadc.

“His point was more of, are we integrating or we are more of disintegrating? Are we moving together or we are more confined to our little islands? That opened debate on what we should be talking about.”

It took ministers of industry and commerce from the region to reach a compromise on the issue and reschedule it for further discussion.

Even then, it took long for the ministers of trade and commerce to reach only a loose agreement, allowing for further discussion. Minister Bimha said the loose agreement signified lack of consensus.

Following input from the heads of Government, the Sadc secretariat was tasked to map a way forward regarding the issue, which culminated in a resolution to hold a special summit on the matter.

Minister Bimha said it was then agreed that there will be a special summit just to focus on industrialisation. The summit will be preceded by a meeting of ministers of trade, industry and infrastructure. The summit could be held in the first quarter of next year.

Minister Bimha said  there was need for regional countries to do some self introspection and look at their comparative advantages and things they can do best than produce even when not competitive.

After the summit, President Mugabe implored regional industrial giant, South Africa, to use its leading industrial base in the block to help fellow member states to develop instead their own industrial capacities and not regard them as mere markets for its products.

Minister Bimha said it was incumbent upon Zimbabwe, having taken over the chairmanship of the regional bloc, to make sure that the objective and goal of industrialisation and integration comes to fruition.

Market liberalisation would not help most regional countries, especially Zimbabwe, which still have to develop sophisticated industrial bases in order to participate in regional trade on an equal footing.

The country presently relies on South Africa for over 60 percent of basis requirements due to constrained industrial capacity and tight liquidity, which are hampering production and efforts to recapitalise.