Buy Zim campaign officially launched

Minister of State in Vice President Joice Mujuru’s Office Sylvester Nguni during commemorations to mark the Buy Zimbabwe Day yesterday.
“Critically our role as Government should be to establish enabling policy environment, while allowing for competitive business sector and encouraging consumers to support local goods and services that are of quality, are affordable and accessible.
“The business community has asked for a bit of introspection into global practice, a sense of pride in what we produce as a country as well as historical grounding of challenges their are facing.
“In this regard they have called for policies that recognise the tight liquidity, high interest rates, high levels of unemployment and resultant low purchasing power, old and antiquated equipment.
“They have promised to play their part as long as other sectors that include consumers, Government and civic bodies play their parts,” he said.
Minister Nguni indicated that the goods, wares and vehicles displayed at the event were a testimony that indeed Zimbabwean businesses are very aware of what is needed for them to become global giants.
“As Government our concern is that this process should not marginalise SMEs or other budding entrepreneurial groups,” said Minister Nguni.
He said that while efforts should be made to retain the stringent criteria of qualification to Buy Zimbabwe accreditation and promotional support, energies should also be exerted towards building aspirational companies.
He also added that consumers have been emphatic in underlying that Buy Zimbabwe should not be used as vehicle to promote substandard goods or services or become a call for an outdated, ill informed form of protectionism by local businesses who have failed to stand their ground against the best from the rest of the World.
“Instead Buy Zimbabwe should represent the best of what our country offers on domestic and international markets.
“The launch of the Buy Zimbabwe Day therefore comes at an appropriate moment in our country’s history when there is a collective realisation that for us to improve our lot, we need to act unison, taking each viewpoints into consideration.
Speaking during the same occasion, Buy Zimbabwe acting chairperson and ZNCC president Mr Oswell Binha said the event was an important milestone and breakthrough following widespread consultations with various stakeholders in Government business and consumer bodies.
“Indeed, our country will record that this Buy Zimbabwe programme is the third initiative our nation has sought to embark on in less than a decade.
“That we have now come to a general agreement that we cannot afford to register yet another failure is an achievement that can not be underestimated,” he said.
Mr Binha added that issues that have been raised by stakeholders were varied with consumers demanding that Zimbabwean products be competitive in terms of quality, price and accessibility.
“Business has sought for policies that recognise the difficulties that our environment brings, i.e. tight liquidity, high interest rates, and sometimes an unfair tariff regime. Government too has been called to take leadership in buying local.
“The challenge for Buy Zimbabwe has been to structure a programme that ensures that all these divergent voices and views are carried on board.
“In the end we have settled for what we call a triple C model – co-operation among stakeholders and policymakers, competitiveness by local products and services, led by strong market insights and of course, consumption of what we produce domestically,” he said.
The acting chairman said the Buy Zimbabwe mark, which was developed following a study of similar icons around the world, will only be used by products and services that meet certain conditions.
These include the fact that they should be of local origin, proven quality as determined by a recognised certification board, such as SAZ, UZ, etc, compliant with best labour practice and should environmental friendly.
“We are glad that already we have some local champions that meet this criteria such as Mazoe, Capri, Buttercup, to mention but a few,” he said.
He said as Buy Zimbabwe they were not calling for protectionism or bullying of consumers to buy sub-standard or more often expensive local goods and services.
“We recognise we too have a role to play. Government as a leading consumer must lead the way procuring locally, businesses must up their game by improving on their quality, marketing and customer care.
“Consumers must, of course, reward this effort knowing only too well that if Zimbabwean businesses win, they too emerge winners through higher wages, higher levels of employment and decreased crime levels,” he said.
The buy Zimbabwe Day was designed to celebrate local brands which meet high quality standards, adhere to the country’s labour laws and are produced in Zimbabwe as per the three principles that Buy Zimbabwe stands for.
In this regard companies were given a platform to exhibit and showcase their products throughout the day.
The event also saw the unveiling of the unique Buy Zimbabwe insignia that would be the identifiable country of origin logo on local products that meet set criteria.