COMMON Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) member states have been urged to stop exporting raw materials rather than finished products.
The call was made by the bloc's Assistant Secretary General Mr Stephen Karangizi at the official launch of the Cotton- to- Clothing Strategy (CCS) document during the business forum meeting.
Mr Karangizi said, “It pains me to see that a lot of our raw materials like cotton are exported in their raw state. After that I see a lot of second hand cloths dominating our markets when we are the producers of cotton,” he said.
He added that the bloc should quickly find the technology and the means to link cotton- textiles and clothing.
“That missing link is costing us a lot,” he said.
In his presentation, Mr Frank Koongo of the African Cotton Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF) said there was need to develop programmes used by COMESA to coordinate donor interventions to help countries export finished products.
“When you export cotton, you export labor,” he said.
Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)
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