The Government has pledged its commitment to increasing the rate at which new value addition industries particularly those led by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are created.

This was revealed by Minster of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Mr. Robert Sichinga at a press briefing in Lusaka.The Minister said his ministry has been working on a strategy for rolling- out industrial clusters of MSMEs producing complementary products in localized areas and availing them common or share services.

He said this strategy is also expected to re- in force entrepreneurial and management talent, promote technology transfer, improve skills training for the youth, and also create job opportunities both in the urban and rural areas.

Mr. Sichinga said a Resource Endowment Audit has been undertaken in nine provinces and only Muchinga remains to be addressed.

“I am leading a team of my staff which will travel to Muchinga Province to complete this work, based on the results of the audit, my ministry will, in collaboration with its statutory boards and multilateral partners commence the implementation of industrial clusters in all the ten provinces,” the minister said.

He said the outputs of this model will also include the rolling- out of the one province a maximum of five products concepts, which would  propagate a bottom- up development approach that utilizes material and human resource to produce globally marketable products.

With regard to non-traditional exports, Mr. Sichinga said his ministry was putting in place measures to enable MSMEs fully participate and take advantage of opportunities presented in COMESA and SADC regional markets where Zambian products can enjoy duty free and quota free market access under the existing  FTA’s,  as long as, they complied with the rules of origin criteria.

“Other opportunities that need to be exploited are those presented under the Zambia – United States bilateral trade, under AGOA, where products enjoy duty market access to the US market, as long as, they qualify and meet required American standards,” Mr. Sichinga said.

“In this ministry, we recognize that it is our primary responsibility to create jobs and self-employment opportunities for not less than four million citizens of this country, the majority of the unemployed are young people who fought so hard to bring about a change of administration, in the hope that they can secure employment for themselves.  We take this responsibility with the seriousness it deserves,” the minister added.