Mnangagwa headlines Buy Zimbabwe Summit

VICE President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa will headline the list of key speakers scheduled to present at the 6th Buy Local Summit in Mutare.

Other key presenters expected to speak at the event to be held from the 8th to 11th of June are Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya.

Mines and Mining Development Minister Walter Chidhakwa and other key Government officials, private sector leaders and the academia are also expected to participate in the 2016 event's economic discussions.

The Buy Zimbabwe annual event, initially been planned for Kariba, has been moved to Mutare to link the summit with partners in Mutare.
Delegates to the summit will tour Quest Motors, Cairns Foods and Tanganda Tea Company. The 2016 Buy Local summit will tackle the practical matters that affect "us as a people" and economy in general.

Buy Zimbabwe economist Kipson Gundani said Minister Chinamasa, Minister Bimha and Mangudya have on several occasions reiterated the need to embrace local consumption to solve local problems.

"As the economy is reeling under the burden of import bill induced cash shortages, many questions are being asked in the minds of Zimbabweans on what direction is our economy taking," said Mr Gundani.

The 2016 Buy Local summit, dubbed as the "mother of all summits", will see the launch of a Local Content Index, supported by the government.

The local content index will be key in shaping procurement and industry policy of this country with respect to procurement regulations, contracting strategies, vendor pre-qualification, technical standards, bid documents, tender evaluation criteria and contract conditions and the government provided incentives among others.

The discussions around consumption of local goods this year comes as the country continues to face serious problems regarding the competitiveness of local firms, which has seen the country continue to import.

As such, the country's import bill remains unsustainable and too high around $6 billion resulting in a trade deficit of about $2,5 billion.