The overall outcome of the conference was that Zimbabwe needs to move away from being am export market and unlock the country’s full potential through aggressive promotion of the production and consumption of local goods and services.
Buy Zimbabwe scored a double during the conference following government’s endorsement of the initiative during the launch of the Industrial Development and Trade Policy late last month.
Delegates further recognised the initiative’s role as a competitiveness and empowerment driver and that it is at the centre of Zimbabwe’s economic development.
Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe president, Winston Chitando expressed the association’s commitment to support the Buy Zimbabwe initiative which he said is critical in enhancing the competitiveness of local industry. This naturally means that our work is cut out for us.
Action, action, action is what Zimbabwe is calling for and if discussions should have been in vain then we will have lost out.
The hot topic was the urgent need to reduce the country’s unnecessarily high unsustainable import bill at approximately US$5 billion against exports of about US$3,6 billion. Oswell Binha, president of Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and Sadc Chambers of Commerce and Industry focused delegates on the urgent need for increased capacity utilisation and the reversal of the unsustainable inflow of imports.
Conference delegates agreed that it starts with us as consumers and the attitude that we have about our products and in some instances our own policies. David Chapfika, chairperson of the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board said that Zimbabwe should place strong emphasis on its local procurement policy and to have more faith and belief in home-grown policies.
One key resolve from the conference is that government, as the single largest consumer, must lead in buying local and supporting this policy. Engineer Dawson Mareya, chief executive officer of Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries (WMMI) says there is need to develop a Zimbabwean motor industry development policy to provide a road-map for the resuscitation of the sector.
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However, there is also the distressed nature of the local companies themselves influenced by the liquidity crunch.
This has largely affected operations in a determined bunch. Joseph Kanyekanye, president of CZI suggested that the country should build its international relationships in order to unlock finance in the form of budgetary support and lines of credit.
He also suggested that local banks be innovative and take advantage of the relationship between Zimbabwe and China.
The obvious effect of the country’s poor infrastructure which was discussed by minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Joseph Made needs immediate attention. The net effect that infrastructure has on the manufacturing and agriculture value chain among others is astronomical. Statistics shared by the minister indicate that 700 000 hectares of maize have been written off this season alone due to incessant power cuts, while our local millers have to import maize from neighboring Zambia and South Africa.
Now, this all happens at a time when we are trying to reduce our import bill.
A solution to the escalating power cuts has to be found to help unlock Zimbabwe’s national gridlock. Chamu Muchenje, the president of the Solar Energy Society of Zimbabwe who was attending the conference suggested the use of alternative energy, in particular solar energy, to reduce pressure on the national grid. I believe this is a great idea which government should take up.
However government’s efforts to ensure that solar energy becomes an alternative source of energy continue to be hindered by high import rates.
Still on the gridlock, the leasing of small thermal power stations featured prominently in the energy and power cluster. What I seemed to be getting was that a strong business-government partnership was critical in this regard. The call has been made by government on previous occasions but the uptake still remains somewhat negligible.
Minister of Mines and Mining Development, Obert Mpofu, emphasised the need to support the productive sectors of the economy in stimulating production and expressed his ministry’s commitment to ensuring value addition of minerals.
All in all the conference was a huge success. The Buy Zimbabwe team shall be circulating a comprehensive report on the conference resolutions and recommendations to all key stakeholders which shall be submitted to government for practical implementation.
