The Sunday News
Economic Focus Gabriel Masvora
IN spite of all the negativity that has been said about the demise of the local industry, it is not as gloomy as it is portrayed.
Bulawayo and many other cities across the country have huge potential to come out of the woods and contribute to the efforts to make Zimbabwe a regional economic powerhouse again.
Such an achievement does not come cheap though, but needs combined and concerted efforts from all the stakeholders.
It needs a push and pull strategy from every corner from Government to the shop floor worker.
It is worth celebrating that some foreign investors have taken the lead and in Bulawayo there are reports that in just one month — February — nearly a million dollars has been poured in by two investors.
According to the Zimbabwe Investment Authority, many more investments worth millions of dollars have been approved across different economic sectors and in all corners of the country.
In addition, Government last week held a Special Economic Zone conference in Harare where input was being collated from all corners of the country to see how the system can be implemented in the country.
Experts from Asian countries that have adopted the concept were at hand giving empirical results on how the concept has helped their countries to achieve thriving economic statuses that have been envied across the globe.
The local business community also weighed with talk of experience, challenges and achievements they have seen over the period.
These are just signs that the country has the potential and by working towards coming up with an enabling environment for investors, it is ready to have its second industrial revolution.
The quest to move industry back into track goes a gear up this week when Bulawayo plays host to the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair — the biggest trade exhibition in the country.
The fair has been held in the city for the past 54 years and its history is bonded to the industrial activity of the city.
Bulawayo was chosen as the host city of the trade event because it was the country’s trading heart whose veins and arteries were the thriving industries that were dotted across the city.
This is how the city ended up being named the industrial hub of the country and thousands of people were employed in these factories.
Over the past years when the city began to witness massive company closures, somehow ZITF became meaningless especially to Bulawayo.
It was becoming just a meeting place which had lost its umbilical cord – industry. The majority of exhibitors were simply visitors who came and showed their products without leaving any trace of ever existing in the city.
It was degenerating into a sales centre where some companies came to sell their merchandise and left the day the show ended.
More agonising was that it stopped portraying the true nature of the city as many companies, after closing down, no longer took part.
The only sector that was feeling its presence was the hospitality industry as it accommodated the thousands of visitors who were coming into the city.
Sadly, its people and companies were reduced to spectators who could only admire the visitors but watch as the benefits of the exhibition eluded them.
However, it is the little positive signs that are now starting to flicker in the city that ZITF must take advantage of and regain its meaning in relation to Bulawayo.
Bulawayo is a ripe investor destination ready for exploration. In some cases the infrastructure is there and all what is needed is to come and ignite the fire and the smoke will rise again.
In other cases some of the infrastructure is now obsolete but that does not translate to a situation of hopelessness.
It only needs those investors in scrap metal to come in and take advantage of large heaps of steel lying around in many factories.
It might sound unattractive but any venture which brings in money and employment can never be bad.
The National Railways of Zimbabwe alone reports that it has more than 30 tonnes of scrap metal that they are asking to export to scrap metal buyers outside the country.
Many other companies in the city have large quantities of this scrap metal.
It is worrying to note that we are sitting on potential business that is now being exported to fuel economic growth in some countries.
The same people who are employed in those countries to run the foundries could have been our own people and the benefits to the country could be immense.
Apart from that, the city has virgin industrial sites that are ready for investments. The city council has also come in with a number of incentives to attract those who want to start business as well as promote existing ones.
From the Government corridors, word coming out is that the city is among the first that have been identified to be declared a Special Economic Zone.
A special economic zone is a centre with a host of incentives different from other cities meant to give it a comparative advantage over the other centres.
It is only a matter of time before the city gets this status and for all those investors it is time to position themselves for what the city will offer.
These are just a few of the potentials of Bulawayo and ZITF must be there to build the momentum that is already showing around the city.
This show will also witness the first exhibition by a francophone country — Congo Brazzaville.
In the past companies from francophone countries have exhibited as individuals.
But this year, since Congo Brazzaville President Denis Sassou Nguesso will officially open the exhibition his country will exhibit at the show.
Because of Zimbabwe’s colonial history our economic partners have been biased towards Anglo-Saxon countries.
This new link of francophone countries is worth exploiting and this ZITF must build a bridge to this market.
ZITF must, therefore, be a stepping stone to rebuild Bulawayo’s old glory.
