COMESA clusters to develop region

October 6, 2012 | Filed under: Local News | Posted by: web editor

From ALEX NJOVU in Kitwe
COMMON Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) secretary general Sindisho Ngwenya says the cluster initiative being championed by the secretariat is putting the private sector in the region at the centre of development.
Mr Ngwenya was speaking during the graduation ceremony of the COMESA Small and Medium Enterprise clusters for the Zambian footwear at the Zambia National Service (ZNS) skills training camp in Kitwe yesterday.
He said the private sector cluster based development initiatives have been identified as an effective strategy towards the promotion of a pro-poor agenda.
In a speech read on his behalf by director of gender at the secretariat Emiliana Tembo, Mr Ngwenya said COMESA has realised that a thriving private sector can help to alleviate poverty by contributing to economic growth, job creation and improve poor people’s income.
Mr Ngwenya said the clusters will also empower poor people by providing a wide range of products and services at lower prices.
“In this particular case, this intervention is targeting micro and small-scale medium enterprises that are dominated by people, both men and women from lower economic levels of socio-economic classes of COMESA member states.
“People like the shoemakers we see here today, as our studies have shown, are at the moment delinked from most support institutions yet they have the potential of transforming the Zambian economy and that of the COMESA region with minimum investment,” he said.
He said COMESA in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry organised the training to equip Chisokone
market shoe makers with skills on how to improve the quality of their products and how to manage their businesses.
And speaking at the same function, Kitwe ZNS skills camp commander Lawrence Katongo appealed to the grandaunts to put the acquired skills to good use and help improve living standards of people in communities they live in.
“As you get your certificates today, make sure that you show an impact
in the communities you live in by changing the way you do things so that you can inspire others to also do what you have done,” Lieutenant Colonel Katongo said.
He said the training was tailored in a way that will make the shoe makers to produce high quality shoes that will compete on the international market.
“You are now role models in the shoe manufacturing industry not only in Kitwe but the Copper belt and Zambia as a whole. So, you need to lead by example by showing that you were trained here at ZNS camp,” he said.
And Copperstone University chairperson and vice chancellor
Sitwala Mundia said the learning institution is more than ready to contribute to the development of the cluster projects which COMESA has introduced in the country.
“We are more than ready to play our part in contributing to
the development of employable skills for Zambians,” Dr Mundia said.