The Zambia Association of Manufactures (ZAM) has awarded various companies for their efforts in manufacturing and exports in the southern African region and abroad.
The awards were given out at the first ever Zambia exports and manufacturing awards held in Lusaka today.
ZAM Chief Executive Officer, Florence Muleya, said exports have far-fetching benefits as they create employment and foster social and economic development.
Ms. Muleya said ZAM has identified the export market as an area that will spread economic growth.
“We all know that exports have far fetching benefits aside from bringing foreign exchange, they also allow for employment in the economy, poverty alleviation and social and economic development, therefore ZAM has identified the export market as an area that will spread growth for the manufacturing sector,’’ she said.
She said the export awards were targeted at companies that have been exporting to two countries that have had a negative trade balance with Zambia in the recent past years.
“We have identified two trading partners with which Zambia has had a negative trade balance and in these two economies we believe that Zambia can improve its trade balance and these are South Africa and the United States of America,” she said.
Meanwhile, speaking at the same event, ZAM president Ezekiel Sekele, has thanked the United States Aid (USAID), for being a key stakeholder in pushing the agenda for diversification in exports.
“We are delighted to see that we have reached this milestone with USAID, we started our discussion with USAID team in February this year. We are excited because together we are pushing the economic diversification agenda as you know we dependent on copper but we need to continue for opportunities where we can grow our economy and our GDP,’’ he said.
Mr. Sekele has further announced that one of ZAM members has successfully been listed on the Amazon platform and is now exporting to the United States of America.
Among the notable manufacturing companies awarded at the ceremony are Moringa Initiative limited, which got the best imaging award super food new niche, Zambia Sugar PLC, which was awarded for the exporter with greatest social impact, 260 Brands in most collaborative exporter in the 2021, Jewelry of Africa for outstanding trade performance and Trade Kings Group of companies for most progressive exporter.
I just heard that KK has passed away, any breaking news LT? Is it true?
Wonderful ZAM! This is how it should be. We must encourage adding value to raw material and exporting it. This creates jobs and stabilizes our currency. I hope we can have more SMEs exporting. They are the engine of our economy. Also we need to protect infant industries from cheap imports. For our textile industry, salaula is an issue. We need to investigate how to deal with this sector. We used to export jeans material for Moda jeans in Italy.
WE USED TO EXPORT DUNLOP TYRES WE HAD FIAT CARS WE HAD CLOTHING FACTORIES WE HAD ENGINEERING COMPANIES ETC ETC ETC
NOW WE HAS CH1NESE .
PF CANNOT SORT THIS OUT FOR SURE
CHANGE IS IN THE ASIR
This is pathetic…….PF and lungu.
Only moringa is new ……….zambia sugar , the indians doing jewellery and trade Kings are all old
I was expecting to see atleast 10 new exporters
Lungu ,you are a useless president.
Haha…
@Tikki – you sound like you lived in Ndola?
PF mob need to go!