Mujuru to open CEO Roundtable

Business Reporter
VICE President Joice Mujuru is expected to officially open the CEO Roundtable 2011 conference, which opens in Nyanga today to deliberate on challenges bedevilling the economy.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Finance Minister Tendai Biti will also grace the occasion. A large turnout of local company executives is expected at this year’s event. The conference, which is the third edition of the CEO Roundtable, will be held under the theme “Towards a US$100 Billion Economy by 2030” and seeks to provoke thoughts and gear everyone towards restoring Zimbabwe’s place as one of the top economies in Africa.
In 1980 Zimbabwe had a Gross Domestic Product of US$6 billion, 7,4 percent the size of its southern neighbour and former major African trading partner South Africa, whose GDP has grown to US$354 billion. To remain at 7,4 percent of the size of SA’s economy, Zimbabwe’s GDP has to grow to about US$26,2 billion, a far cry from its current size.
Zimbabwe is therefore currently only at 25,6 percent of its 1980 potential. To that end, executives from various sectors of the country’s diversified economy will put their heads together and deliberate on strategies and policy requirements that could catapult the economy to release its potential.
Mr Partridge Sibanda, the business development executive of KM Financial Solutions, organisers of the event, said they expected more than 160 executives to converge at Troutbeck, Nyanga, and share ideas on the economy.
The conference seeks to unpack the potential in the economy and identify opportunities available to Zimbabwean firms in the context of irrefutable and unavoidable growth of the economy over the next 20 years.
KM Financial Solutions chief executive Mr Kenias Mafukidze said Zimbabwe has potential for double-digit growth, which can be sustained over the next two decades for a US$100 billion economy by 2030.
“This kind of growth will not be achieved by error! It will only be possible through painstaking co-ordinated planning and serious engagements by all stakeholders,” said Mr Mafukidze. He said the country has unmatched subsoil resources, human capital, unwavering resilience, which if combined with creative planning and synchronised efforts could enable the country to realise double-digit growth.
“The conference seeks to stretch the imaginations of all leaders to visualise what Zimbabwe will be like in 2030, 50 years after its independence.
“Delegates will deliberate and identify the key imperatives that will enable Zimbabwean businesses to compete and survive over the next gruesome 20 years of unprecedented cut-throat global glut of goods and services,” he said.
The conference will seek answers on where the country is headed under the current geo-political and economic trends and how firms could exploit opportunities available in the next two decades of growth.
Mr Mafukidze also said the roundtable conference would also seek to determine the policy framework required for the country to be able to realise sustained economic growth and maximum benefits from minerals.