The Zimbabwe Business community joined other business experts from the entire continent at the Business Dialogue discussion that was held in the capital recently.
The Business Dialogue was meant to discuss the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA).
Financial experts from within the continent gathered to discuss as well as sharing ideas on how African countries can benefit from each other through trade and be able to up competition with other continents.
CDF Trust managing director Caleb Dengu explained why and how Zimbabwe needs to invest in infrastructure development.
“We need to invest in the development of our infrastructure. Zimbabwe is facing power shortages because we depend on hydro- power. There are so many alternatives in the country and we need to embrace that in order to be able to compete on the global market,” said Dengu.
Tawanda Mubvuma, a Principal Economist from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe used Ethiopia as an example when he explained how the country does its business adding that the country does not look for foreign investment but look for competition.
“We need to be able to utilize our won resources, we talk of value addition so that we benefit directly from our own minerals. We need to invest more on infrastructure development,” said Mubvuma.
The Principal Consultant and Global Functional Head Mercer, Nicol Mullins said one of Africa’s biggest exports are its own people.
“The world stands to benefit by having a disunited Africa,” Mullins said.
Senior economist Philip Chitsika chipped in urging on how Zimbabwe to take a different business approach in-order to compete globally.
“We need to get to a point where business goes to the front and the government moves to the back. Their role (government) is to provide a conducive environment for business,” said Chitsika.
“Protecting local industry is never a good strategy. We need to expose our industries to competition for them to catch up with the rest of the world,” added Chitsika.
“Most of the water sources in Zimbabwe are polluted, instead of looking for money to fix that one source why not invest in other sources of water,” added Chitsika.
Advisory K managing director Ethel Kuuya concluded the panel discussion by encouraging the business community to look up and develop in order to compete in the global market.
