Wallace Ruzvidzo-Herald Reporter
THE business community cherishes the conducive environment ushered in by President Mnangagwa and will play its part to ensure supermarket shelves are stocked with local products and maintaining price stability.
Responding to President Mnangagwa’s call for the business sector to step up to the plate in the quest for an upper middle class economy by 2030, business leaders said they will play their part.
President Mnangagwa last week met business leaders at the second ED Mnangagwa Business Summit in Harare and they assured him that they were ready to up the ante in their efforts to support the Second Republic’s growth initiatives as envisaged in the National Development Strategy (NDS1).
Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR) president Dr Denford Mutashu reaffirmed the business community’s commitment to aiding the attainment of an upper-middle-income economy by 2030.
“We will be getting both the public and private sectors to increase cooperation, engagements and partnerships to achieve Vision 2030. We wish to set up a Government and private sector ease of doing business and cost of doing business high-level committee that will be reporting to President Mnangagwa,” he said.
Dr Mutashu commended the Second Republic for the enabling environment it continues to foster, saying this had set the tone for private sector-led economic growth.
“I wish to thank President Mnangagwa for providing strong, stable and visionary leadership to business and the country at large, and we wish to reaffirm our commitment towards supporting Vision 2030 while leaving no one and no place behind because indeed nyika inovakwa nevene vayo,” he said.
Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) chairman Mr Tafadzwa Musarara said the business community, particularly those in the food production value chain, were working towards ensuring prices of commodities remain stable.
“We are working with the Government to ensure that bread does not exceed the US$1 retail price. The local industry is currently supplying 100 percent of the cooking oil requirements. There is a need for support for local production of edible oils. We request Government to continue protecting the cooking oil industry from illegal imports,” he said.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) Mashonaland region vice president, Mr Tapiwa Karoro, said the business community did not doubt that Zimbabwe was on a growth path under President Mnangagwa.
He said a collaborative approach between Government and business leaders would see an increase in confidence.
“We as Zimbabweans are lacking confidence, we are lacking confidence in our currency and products but we believe this can be turned around if we have a collaborative effort; Government is giving us policy direction to enable us as business to commit our capital, to improve our production, efficiency and effectiveness.
“With the President’s leadership we have seen that the trajectory of our economy is certainly on the rise,” he said.
President Mnangagwa made it known to business leaders that the Second Republic would continue making interventions towards ensuring a conducive environment for businesses to thrive.
“Achieving sustainable economic growth and transformation is indeed a journey that requires vision, determination and collective action from both the private and public sectors.
“To this end, the Second Republic will continue to make interventions towards bolstering the foundations we have set for business to thrive, while ensuring that economic growth is inclusive and transformative,” he said.
Under the Second Republic, the business community has been charged with spearheading the country’s economic growth.
