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President ED Mnangagwa

Midlands Bureau
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa is set to officially open the 8th Buy Zimbabwe Summit that will be held in Gweru starting tomorrow.

Buy Zimbabwe is a lobby group that advocates procurement of local goods and services. This year’s summit will run under the theme, “Building competitiveness and retaining local preference in an open economy”, and will be held at The Village Lodge in Gweru.

In an interview, Buy Zimbabwe chief executive officer Mr Munyaradzi Hwengwere said the summit would be held over two days tomorrow and on Friday.

“Our 8th Buy Zimbabwe Summit will be held in Gweru and will be officially opened by His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who will be our guest of honour. The two day summit will be on 14 and 15 June,” he said.

Mr Hwengwere urged local companies to be competitive in order to protect the local market especially at a time when Government is luring foreign direct investment into the country.

“There is need to promote competitiveness in the local sector so that the local market is protected especially at a time like this where Government is working tirelessly to attract FDI into the country.

“The most important thing is that as a country, we have adopted a new mantra, which is ‘Zimbabwe is open for business’, so we seek to create strong relations between local and foreign producers,” he said.

Mr Hwengwere said Buy Zimbabwe has noted with concern that most locals prefer international products as compared to local products.

“What we have realised is that most locals prefer products from outside the country as compared to locally produced items. So, as a result we want to establish a link between foreign investment companies and domestic businesses,” he said.