ZIMBABWE is among African countries set to benefit from the €11 million (about $14,9 million) fund set up by the European Union to revive the clothing and textile industry, a government official said yesterday.
TARISAI MANDIZHA
Under the Cotton to Clothing Strategy, the European Development Fund has a pool of resources available to African countries.
Zimbabwe is in the second and last stage for considerations which is expected to be finalised and polished before being launched on September 4 2014.
Yesterday, Zimbabwe held a second consultative workshop on Cotton to Clothing Strategy for the country.
Ministry of Industry and Commerce permanent secretary Abigail Shonhiwa said the workshop on Cotton to Clothing Strategy Development was a further step on a journey that would assist in the revival of the entire cotton value chain hoping that the strategy was to be integrated into the existing development policies currently in use.
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“Although past strategies have remained stillborn, l am, this time around, confident that this strategy will succeed as funds for its implementation have already been provided by the European Union under the European Development Fund (EDF 11),” Shonhiwa said in a speech read on her behalf by a senior official in the ministry.
“Additionally, within this same framework, the EU has recently launched a new programme called Support for the Consolidation of the Action Framework under the EU-Africa Partnership on cotton, to the tune of €11 million.”
Apart from the €11 million, Zimbabwe was also set to benefit from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) €4,8 million and another €1 million allocation as part of the regional economic integration efforts to support Zimbabwe.
Shonhiwa said the workshop sought to validate the cotton-to-clothing industry competitiveness assessment across the entire value chain.
It also sought consensus on priority needs and strategic considerations on issues and constraints impeding the industry’s development and exports and to elaborate the strategic action plan.
“This strategic document the country intends to come up with is so crucial since many African countries depend on cotton for their livelihoods. Regrettably though, continued and sustained production of the crop is being compromised by depressed prices of cotton on the world market particularly given the fact that the welfare of the farmers is important for the economic strength of the rest of the value–chain actors,” Shonhiwa said.
The textile and clothing subsectors were contributing 2% to the country’s gross domestic product from 5% in the 90s.
At its peak, the industry used to employ over 35 000.