National Economic Consultative Forum, a voluntary association of citizens eager to act in common purpose in pursuit of achieving Zimbabwe’s socioeconomic development goals is set to host the Zimbabwe International Business Conference (IBC) on Wednesday .
The 10th edition of the conference which is hosted annually alongside the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair is running under the theme, “Innovate-integrate-industrialize.”
“The conference is expected to engage stakeholders in a policy dialogue on how the country can optimize its assets and natural resources to resuscitate and revitalize its industries and create sustainable value-chains,” said National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF) in a statement .
The conference which facilitates knowledge exchange on how businesses can survive and compete in the increasingly competitive global environment is expected to deepen engagement with foreign investors and outside markets, while at the same time proffering solutions on how Zimbabwe can make the most out of the global value chains to implement its industrialization agenda.
According to NECF , “The conference will come up with a clear set of recommendations on how the country can optimize and leverage on its resources and assets so as to create economic value. The discussions will be centered on the three main fundamentals that are innovation as a creator of competitive advantage for businesses and ultimately nations; regional integration and geography as the context for industrial development and economic prosperity and industrialization as the champion of economic and technology transformation.”
The IBC is a platform meant to create an ambient business networking environment that provides decision makers from business, government and non-state actors with an opportunity to discuss pertinent economic and social issues and influence policy. The IBC has proven to be a major puller of top-level business executives, both local and foreign, senior government officials as well as heads of academic institutions and civil society organisations.
Captains of industry and commerce, and experts drawn from the government, business, academia, diplomatic corps and civil Society are expected to interact and debate themes on how to transform the country’s economic assets, be it the mineral wealth, agriculture, tourism and commerce so as to optimize their economic value.
The 10th edition of IBC is expected to address the critical issues of innovation, industrialisation and regional integration which are essential to increasing the wealth and employment creation for Zimbabwe.
“ The 2016 IBC is inspired by the economic policies of economic giants that include China and India that have benefitted from technology linked industrialisation and economic integration,” said NEFC
