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Business Reporter
The Bulawayo business community will launch a campaign to promote consumption of locally manufactured goods under the “Buy Local, Revive Bulawayo” crusade. The initiative is meant to buttress the government’s fiscal policy measures on tackling the skyrocketing import bill estimated to be about $4 billion, which economists blame for suffocating domestic industrial competitiveness.

Under the programme, the business community would hold a week-long sensitisation campaign at the end of this month to raise awareness on the importance of purchasing and consuming locally produced goods and services in an effort to save and create jobs, revive the Bulawayo economy and improve standards of living for ordinary people.

The Buy Zimbabwe Campaign team, in partnership with Innotec (Pvt) Ltd, regulators and authorities, are coordinating the programme.
“We’ll be hosting the inaugural Buy Zimbabwe Week in Bulawayo from October 25 to 31, 2014. This will be a week-long event comprising public awareness and sensitisation campaigns,” the organising committee said in a statement.

“There will be a public expo for locally produced goods and services, a business conference and performance awards for Bulawayo companies among other promotional activities.

“The event will see surviving and aspiring Bulawayo firms engaging with the public, government departments, public and private sector organisations and other stakeholders in an effort to promote increased production and consumption of their goods and services.”

Buy Zimbabwe is a competitiveness and empowerment driver whose mandate is to unlock the country’s economic potential through a structured aggressive support of the production and consumption of local goods and services.

The initiative seeks to actively promote home-grown products for the domestic and global markets.
When the country went through a difficult economic period in the last decade, consumers were subjected to imported goods. This has caused a huge trade deficit, a situation where the value of imports exceeds exports.

“In this regard it is essential to promote the consumption of locally produced goods and services by the government, local authorities, public and private sector and the general public,” said the committee.

Private and public companies with businesses operating in Bulawayo, government departments and local authorities, institutions of higher learning and the civic society have been invited to participate in the programme.

The organisers say the crusade is envisaged to result in improved consumer appreciation and consumption of local goods and services, enhanced interaction and understanding between the government, regulators, financers and local companies.

Ultimately, they said, the programme seeks to achieve on a medium to long term basis, restoration of Bulawayo’s lost economic status as the country’s industrial hub.

The programme is set to bring hope for Bulawayo, which has witnessed closure of more than 100 companies in the last decade.