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Prosper Ndlovu, Business Editor
INDUSTRY expert and United Refineries chief executive, Mr Busisa Moyo, has challenged Bulawayo entrepreneurs to “soul search” and come up with creative business ideas that will help develop the city’s economy.

“We have to really open our minds”, said Mr Moyo who is the immediate past president of Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI).

“Let us think outside the box and rebuild the city from other angles not just Special Economic Zones.

“This is just one small slice of the economy, it’s a manufacturing thing, which doesn’t talk to the rest of the economy.”

He was contributing during a recent debate on the implementation of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Bulawayo.

“The model is expected to add investment impetus in the city and assist in job creation on the back of company closures experienced in recent years.

During the discussion most participants had expressed reservations with designation of Bulawayo as a leather and textile SEZ, saying the approach was not inclusive and should be broadened.

Mr Moyo stressed that Bulawayo still has lots of strategic business opportunities apart from manufacturing and bemoaned what he termed a “tragedy” of always seeing problems and not the sunny side.

“I think the tragedy and trauma of what we have gone through is that our minds are closed, we see more problems and analyse to death something before it even takes shape.

“Let’s rather fertilise, understand and probe before we take positions and that’s the thinking from the preview and brief that we have received,” he said.

“The successful implementation of Special Economic Zones will require creative entrepreneurship big time. Government can only do little work.

“What underpins the spirit of SEZ are clusters and value chains and essentially regional value chains for that matter.”

Mr Moyo, who is also board member to the newly appointed SEZs Authority, said the process of designating SEZs was still work in progress and urged the city to embrace the model as a launch pad for increased productivity.

“There are a lot of areas with potential to boost the city’s economy.

“Instead of just saying we do not want this and that let the concept of leather and textile pull the rest of Bulawayo prosperity,” he said.

Mr Moyo said serious thought was being put into the SEZs programme, which also covers Victoria Falls and Harare’s Sunway City as pilot projects.

“These SEZs should plug into regional value chains. We can do assemble industry here just for trucks and trailers. We just need to be a little bit more creative and enterprising.

“The concern will be if there is no entrepreneurial take to it and antagonism, I think we need not personalise it, let’s proffer what we think and expand the scope and think more outside the box and not be antagonistic,” he said.

“In any case SEZs are not the panacea and Bulawayo needs to soul search.

“We have a history of education in Sadc.

“We have the Zimbabwe of School of Mines, Bulawayo Polytechnic and Nust here. We need to also model ourselves as an education hub for the region.

“That’s not a SEZ but we can position ourselves and city fathers need to start to position ourselves and market ourselves to the rest of the region.”