The Council also challenged business people to target internationally accepted quality to ably access and penetrate through the global market.
The Council’s Policy and Advocacy Officer Ms. Kudzai Madzivanyika said this on Tuesday when she officially opened four-day training workshop for local SMEs.
The workshop dubbed ‘Local Sourcing for Partnerships meeting’ and targeting over 80 participants will end on Friday.
The forum seeks to contribute to an overall improvement of intra trade development in COMESA as well as promote and facilitate international market access of local products.
According to Madzivanyika, through a combined effort and collaboration in implementation of the Local Sourcing Project, tangible development can be achieved for the competitiveness of SMEs businesses and industries.
“On Global Procurement- At Private sector level, Large corporate should support the local and regional SMEs through procurement processes from the local and regional industry in their respective value chain. Large corporate, working with the SME Associations can identify the respective SME’s that can input into their value chains. This will strengthen the growth of SMEs,” Madzivanyika.
The training is also in line with the nation’s ‘Buy Malawian Build Malawi’ strategy which was launched by President Peter Mutharika to stimulate local production, consumption and growth by mobilizing all players to embrace locally produced goods and services to ultimately build the competitiveness of the country’s local enterprises.
However, the strategy attracted mixed reactions as locally produced products are largely considered of low quality and expensive compared to imported products.
Malawi Confederations of Chambers Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) which is working hand in hand with CBC, says most products sold on the market come in raw form and they are consequently considered of low quality, hence the need for seen value addition to their products attract more customers within and beyond the borders.
“We are below what consumers can get on an international market which has increased the appetite for imported goods with Malawians which has affected foreign reserves.” said Chimwemwe Luhanga, chief operations officer for MCCCI.
He however said after publicizing the international policies and the competition of the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) state of the art Labolotory in Blantyre will help to address the problem.
Luhanga also asked government to be consistent with its policies and stick to them despite a regime change.
And on its part Government through the Ministry of Trade industry and Trade promised the SMEs that it will help them to identify an international market for their products provided are of high quality.
According to Director of Finance and Administration in the Ministry Dr Joseph Mkandawire further said government is trying to make the economic environment favourable for the benefit of local producers.
“It is encouraging to see that Malawi has made significant strides in its economic development agenda since attaining independence on 6 July 1964. But it’s also important to note that Malawi has suffered some economic setbacks that are characteristic of a country with a weak productive base.
“We are marking a positive step forward by strengthening the capacity of suppliers on quality standards that will ensure that our local suppliers are integrated into the supply chains of supermarkets and hotels in Malawi.” said Mkandawire.
Previously in 2009 till 2014, the former Buy Malawi Campaign did not substantially meet its intended objective because of: limited support from key stakeholders, changes in policies, lack of consistency in implementation, limited authority of the implementation institutions and to some extent lack of capacity by the private sector," said Mkandawire.
He however added that additional trainings will be held in Ethiopia and Malawi saying that CBC project presents local suppliers with a great opportunity to connect with other suppliers within the COMESA region, ultimately contributing to the growth of their regional markets.
Said Mkandawire: “For us to achieve the objective of promoting conformity to standards as well as to ensure the provision of quality goods and services, we should endeavour to continue create awareness among the local private sector producers and manufactures regarding adherence to standard requirements.
He said Government will encourage the acquisition and use of appropriate technology, create consumer awareness on standards and quality certification mark apart from promoting innovation, value addition, and exploitation of local materials.
COMESA is constituted by 19 Member States. It successfully established a Free Trade Area (FTA) on 31 October 2000 with the key aim of facilitating intra trade through zero customs tariffs on goods produced and traded among the Member States.
It has only managed to justify 10 percent of the market due to among others lack of value addition from its 80 percent member states who are agro based.
