ECONOMISTS have urged local businesses to take advantage of the upcoming Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Industrialisation Week to form strategic partnerships, tap into investment prospects, and position themselves for enhanced regional integration and growth.
The Sadc Industrialisation Week will run from July 28 to August 2 in Zimbabwe under the theme, Promoting innovation to unlock opportunities for sustainable economic growth and development: towards an industrialised Sadc.
“Such gatherings always present opportunities through creating new contacts, networking and possible export deals of either products or services,” economist Vince Musewe said.
“The Zimbabwe business sector must push to export finished products or specialist services to the region to diversify and increase our export earnings.”
Economist Stevenson Dhlamini said local businesses and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) can use the platform to connect with regional investors.
“Local businesses, both local and MSMEs, can take full advantage of the 7th Sadc Industrialisation Week by networking with regional investors. The theme is also focused on boosting regional value chains in agro processing, mining and pharmaceutical which are sectors on which we have a comparative advantage as a country.
“This gives them an opportunity to showcase potential investment opportunities in Zimbabwe and explore potential private public partnerships with regional partners. Again those in the hospitality industry can take full advantage to showcase their product offerings and increase their regional market share through networking and exhibitions that will be ongoing during the week.”
Victor Nyoni, another economist, stressed the importance of Zimbabwean companies to actively participate in the event to tap into new technologies and to learn from the companies ahead of them.
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“The purpose of this participation or the goal should be to really forge synergies with all other economic players in Sadc and ensure that through that collaboration, they then are able to look into what other companies are doing and those that are ahead of us as local companies.
“Then our companies formulate strategies of benchmarking and indeed learning from those companies. The events give the opportunity to our companies to benchmark themselves against those that are leading in various sectors.”
Nyoni also highlighted the need for Zimbabwean companies to use the event to advocate better economic policies and a more conducive operating environment.
“There has been a lot of talk that we need to trade among ourselves as Africans. So this indeed comes as an opportunity for our companies to walk the talk and look into what other players are doing and establish those markets and start to push products into various places,” he said.
“We need to know how the companies in the region influence economic policies in their own individual countries. Local companies need to learn from others as well as to sharpen their advocacy skills in terms of contributing and influencing all local economic laws, for example, taxes that create a conducive operating environment.
“There are certain areas that really have not been favourable to us. We may need to interact with other companies from various countries to say how they have been handling their issues. All of that then can help us advocate better policies in our country.
He said businesses should also use the opportunity to create spaces with certain tax regimes thus collaborating to put rules that promote trade and manufacturing and ensure a more favourable operating environment.
“Zimbabwe has by and large been reduced to a retailing platform. We need now to really look at industrialisation in the context of manufacturing and then ensure that our local companies are involved in the real industrialisation,” Nyoni said.
