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Zimbabwean Manufacturers Urge gov’t to Ease Cumbersome Export Procedures

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Zimbabwean manufacturers have urged the government to simplify export procedures to allow the industry to refocus following the recent launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The continental free trade area opens a 1.3-billion-people-market.

United Refineries chief executive Busisa Moyo, who is also the Zimbabwe Investment Development Authority (ZIDA) chairperson and Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) past president, said there were several areas that needed to be looked at for local industries to penetrate the market.

Entrenching macroeconomic stability, the political will, efficient infrastructure, retooling finance, competitiveness, and retraining would be among key requirements for tapping into AfCFTA, he said.

According to the Herald newspaper on Tuesday, Moyo told a recent virtual seminar on AfCFTA that the new market would create more demand for economies across Africa but said Zimbabwe needed to rethink its export strategy.

AfCFTA – which came into force in January – is the African continent’s most ambitious integration initiative, embedded in the Agenda 2063 of the African Union (AU), whose main objective is to create a single continental market for goods and services with free movement of people and investments.

It is expected to increase intra-Africa trade from an existing level of about 13 per cent to 25 per cent or more through better harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization.

The signing of the deal at continental level creates a market of about 1.3 billion people with estimated combined Gross Domestic Product of more than 3.4 trillion U.S. dollars.

Moyo said the AfCFTA market would drive demand for goods, which would help increase the currently diminished capacity utilisation of Zimbabwean companies.

He pointed out that the significant growth in plant utilisation in 2020 was largely in part a result of strong demand, locally though, when imports were restricted.

This saw industrial plant usage grow from 36 per cent to an average of 47 per cent.

The industry is targeting 61 per cent capacity but has requested a number of impediments to be addressed for that to happen.

Moyo said AfCFTA would have a similar effect of growing industrial output if authorities addressed the myriad of constraints tripping firms, among them the litany of complex export procedures.

Manufactured exports currently constitute at least 16 per cent of total exports and industry believes there is significant room to expand the export basket, which is hugely dominated by raw exports, especially minerals and tobacco.

Moyo said Zimbabwe was already doing export business and had basic infrastructure in place, but needed certain structural and policy flaws straightened to optimise returns.

CZI’s trade committee chairperson Henry Nemaire said the government needed to work on impediments to exporting, stressing that most exporters were currently taxed at more than 100 per cent.

He said the many constraints to export business had removed the incentive to export.

He, therefore, urged authorities to restore and introduce incentives to encourage and promote exports. (Xinhua/NAN)

Foreign News

Earthquake Shakes Western Greece

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A strong earthquake has shaken western Greece on Friday morning, but no casualties reported.

The Greek Geodynamic Institute in Athens, said the 5.8 magnitude quake occurred at 9:12 am (0812 GMT) local time.

The epicentre of the quake was about 20 kilometres below the seabed off the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula near the islet of Stamfani, also known as Strofades.

It was preceded by a smaller quake with a magnitude of 4.

1.

Greece’s Civil Defence organisation did not initially say whether there were any casualties or damage to buildings.

A tsunami warning was not issued.

“We felt the tremors very strongly,” a resident of the nearby Olympia region said, adding that

“everyone here is on the streets.

 Local media reported that many schools had been evacuated as the quake was felt throughout western Greece, and on the tourist island of Zakynthos and as far away as Athens, about 300 kilometres away.

The deepest point of the Mediterranean Sea is located between western Greece and Sicily in Italy, with a depth of over 5,000 metres.

The African and European tectonic plates meet in this region, which make it prone to strong earthquakes. (dpa/NAN)

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Russian Army Fires Ballistic Missiles at Kiev from Crimean Peninsula

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The Russian Army has hit the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, with ballistic missiles, injuring four people and damaging an uninhabited three-storey building, according to officials.

Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said  that two of the injured  people were in a central neighbourhood and  had been taken to hospital.

Rocket debris also fell in two other neighbourhoods.

According to the Ukrainian air force, two ballistic missiles were fired at the city of millions, from the Russian-controlled Crimea Peninsula.

Both were shot down.

Half a dozen explosions from anti-aircraft missiles had previously been heard in the city centre.

The air raid warning was only triggered a few seconds beforehand, it said.

Ukraine has been facing  Russian invasion for over two years.

Since then, the Ukrainian air defence system has been massively reinforced with Western systems. (dpa/NAN)

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Cambodia Arrests 2 Foreigners for Smuggling 2.27 kg Narcotics

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Cambodian customs police at the Phnom Penh International Airport said they have arrested two South Korean nationals for an attempt to smuggle 2.27 kg narcotics to South Korea.

The duo, a man and woman, were caught Sunday night while they checked in for a ZA215 flight bound for Seoul.

The General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia said in a news release on Monday.

In their body searches, our customs officials found many packs of drugs wrapped around their waists, the news release said.

“As a result, some 1.29 kg of crystal methamphetamine and 0.98 kg of ketamine were seized from the two suspects’ possession.’’

The Southeast Asian country has no death sentence for a drug trafficker.

Under its law, someone found guilty of trafficking more than 80 grammes of illicit drugs could be jailed for life.

According to the country’s Anti-Drug Department (ADP), Cambodia nabbed 3,899 drug-related suspects, including 106 foreigners, in 1,659 cases from Jan. 1 to March 3, 2024.

According to the report they confiscated a total of 2.79 tonnes of narcotics.

Most of the seized drugs were ketamine, crystal methamphetamine, methamphetamine tablets, heroin, ecstasy, and cocaine. (Xinhua/NAN)

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