HARARE, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe is actively seeking to increase access for its small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to the Chinese market, leveraging on existing trade relations between the two countries, a Zimbabwean cabinet minister said Wednesday.
Responding to a question from Xinhua on the sidelines of the SMEs International Expo in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Monica Mutsvangwa said the Chinese market can provide momentum to propel SMEs into globally competitive enterprises through market access and industry partnerships.
"China is a big market, and we want to take advantage and leverage on the good relationships between our two countries," she said.
Mutsvangwa said locally produced heritage products and cultural artifacts, such as indigenous stone and wood sculptures, can be exported to China, further elevating the export portfolios of local SMEs.
"When it comes to indigenous products, we have very good products which Chinese consumers really love, especially artifacts," she said. "What we do produce is organic, and it is what the Chinese are very much interested in."
The minister noted that to further expand into the Chinese market, local enterprises, including medium enterprises, exhibited at the China International Import Expo, which just ended in China's Shanghai.
Mutsvangwa emphasized the need to capacitate local SMEs through digital skills to enable them to achieve scalable growth and expand into the Chinese digital market.
"We want our SMEs to learn, especially digital skills. We know that a lot of businesses are now being done online, so when we do not train our SMEs enough digital skills, we are automatically discriminating them from the e-commerce, e-market," she said.
Zimbabwe's SMEs International Expo is an annual exhibition that seeks to create synergies and a networking platform for micro, small and medium businesses.
SMEs are a key pillar of Zimbabwe's economy, accounting for a significant share of employment and contributing more than 60 percent to Zimbabwe's gross domestic product, according to the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development.
A single purchase
