It’s all about ‘action, action, action’

of issues that are threatening Zimbabwe’s full economic recovery, it is important that we all let this vision guide us as we work towards the target.
What is really important though is the action that we take to achieve this vision.
It’s about “execution, execution, and more execution”. This is key as we we head towards an action-oriented 2012 Buy Zimbabwe Conference to be held on March 29 2012.
Buy Zimbabwe is pleased to announce that this year’s conference not only feeds very well into resolutions of the CEO’s Roundtable but has a stronger focus on the implementation of the much anticipated resolutions of its own conference.
While the 2012 edition of the Buy Zimbabwe Conference promises to be mammoth by any standards, one thing that would really excite our current and prospective partners is how we have planned to implement the conference resolutions.
Our partnership with “My Own Boss”, the entrepreneurial television reality show that literally gave birth to the Buy Zimbabwe in 2010, shall be taking full effect once again this year.
This is an exciting opportunity as Zimbabwe will once again get to witness some of the best youthful entrepreneurial minds practically implementing some of the conference resolutions in line with the Buy Zimbabwe motto “Going Beyond Words”.
For Buy Zimbabwe partners this is an opportunity to tap into the young minds of aspiring entrepreneurs as they carry out practical tasks and look for practical solutions to some of the challenges that our partners are currently faced with.
Back to the conference itself, the discussions this year are more focused than in the previous year.
Now that we are done with the business of launching Buy Zimbabwe, it is time to address those real issues that I spoke of in the early paragraphs.
Some of those that quickly come to mind are the sustainability of buying Zimbabwean products, our current trade deficit with countries such South Africa and the credit crunch.
Till this stage, questions have been raised about the sustainability of buying Zimbabwean products; whether this is factual or not is another thing altogether.
However, we see it appropriate to bring together a team representing both bureaucrats and technical experts to openly discuss this issue.
In addition, we have also commissioned a research that will show real consumer habits that are prevailing on the market so that we can all be adequately informed at the end of the day.
The outcomes of this research shall be a major point of discussion at the conference.
Certainly the conference cannot go ahead without taking stock of the milestones we have reached in buying Zimbabwe as this will help us understand where we are going and if the direction that we are taking is indeed right.
It will also be important to take a closer look at some of the challenges that we have faced throughout the year, both internal and external, as local companies and as Buy Zimbabwe.
Following that big issue last year where the social partners in South Africa signed a Buy SA Accord which provisioned that Government institutions and other like parties procure 75 percent of the products and services from South Africa, we have seen it fit to invite a team from South Africa to see how we can actually benefit from their new arrangement.
In any case, South Africa is our largest trading partner and I believe they also derive a lot of benefit from trading with Zimbabwean firms.
Considering that some of our biggest existing and potential Buy Zimbabwe partners have huge footprints in world markets, it is also important that we safeguard their interests as well.
It is thus in Buy Zimbabwe’s interest to see how we can create win-win partnerships not only with South Africa but also across the region and the world over.
There is also obviously the issue of the liquidity crisis the country is currently facing and major issues that are linked with the country’s underutilised infrastructure.
Clearly, we need to find right solutions to these questions. We have to find practical ways of dealing with banking sector legacy issues such as FCA balances.
There is urgent need to ensure that the country focuses on projects such as the expansion of Kariba South and Hwange power stations if we have any hope of fully resuscitating local industry.
The beauty about Zimbabwe right now is that we have a lot of positive examples to learn from such as the ICT sector which has managed against all odds to take centre stage in the economy.
Currently, we are seeing a lot of other sectors revolving around this sector. We also have the positive growth, which exhibits a lot of still untapped potential.
Buy Zimbabwe Conference 2012 surely has taken a practical form that will ensure that from here on Zimbabwe is on a sustainable growth path.
l Robert Garai Muganda is the Media and Communications Executive for Buy Zimbabwe. Email: [email protected], 0772 714 233. Facebook: buy Zimbabwe campaign; Twitter: buyzimbabwe campaign