Introduction
Buy Zimbabwe proudly hosts its 5th Buy Local Summit from 17-19 June 2015 at the Elephant Hills in the Resort Town of Victoria Falls. This is an event aimed at bringing together key business leaders, decision makers and Government officials, to discuss critical issues relating to the economic development of Zimbabwe under the theme “Enhancing Local Preference for Industry Revival”.
From its inception Buy Zimbabwe had tirelessly worked towards building the competitiveness of local industry. Buy Zimbabwe’s drive is to safeguard and create jobs as well as local wealth and is gratified that its calls have not gone unheeded, as more companies are joining the crusade for promoting local products and services.
Problem statement
The growth of the Zimbabwean economy has been mainly driven by a rebound in agriculture and mining hence the slowdown in growth of these key sectors has resultantly led to the tumble in the economy. One critical concern is the widening current account deficit which now stands at 16% of GDP. The import bill continues to outgrow our export performance, leaving the country in a current account crisis.
According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness report 2013/4, the major factors affecting the economy remain unchanged. This therefore means there has been little progress in resolving the major challenges bedeviling the economy. Yet despite this seemingly obvious state of affairs, which in the case of Zimbabwe is made even clearer by the existence of trade restrictions by major trading blocs such as the USA and leading multilateral financial agencies, we continue to pursue suicidal economic policies while expecting our economic fortunes to improve.
Objectives of the Summit
The 2015 Buy Local summit is coming at an opportune time, as the nation, reeling under the burden of a high import bill, has fully realised the need to capacitate local products as the ultimate solution out of this economic quagmire. The summit will create a platform to explore opportunities for local companies to increase their market share and competitiveness against a background of competition from cheap imports, low funding, high cost of borrowing, ageing plant, equipment and machinery, inconsistent power supply as well as weak distribution linkages with domestic suppliers among several adverse variables.
The summit is divided into three segments as follows;
- The policy environment – with specific focus to import – export oriented industries like mining, manufacturing and agriculture as the bedrock of our economy with specific emphasis to the fiscal framework, procurement policies and other related policies surrounding these sectors.
- The economic enablers with specific references to energy and ICTs as key economic enablers.
- Balance of Payments and explore rigorous mechanisms of curbing the marauding current account deficit taking into account protectionism and competiveness matters.
The participating companies will not only build a collective mindset to be creative and innovative, but would also to realize the need to raise the quality of local products in line with global standards. The anticipated resolutions of the conference, which will be mutually beneficial to all stakeholders, would feed into related policy framework of the country.
Who is expected to attend?
Ministers of Government, Permanent Secretaries and Government Officials, CEOs, Regulatory bodies, Marketing Managers, Company Buyers, Heads of Parastatals, Academia, Media, NGOs and members of the public.
For more information contact – Kipson Gundani on kipson@buyzimbabwe.co.zw or call 0773529233
