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Business Reporter
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa will be the guest of honour at the inaugural Zimbabwe Economic Development and Growth Strategy International Convention (Zedcon) to be held in Victoria Falls starting tomorrow up to Friday.

He will deliver the keynote address at the high-level gathering, which will be attended by top Government officials, economic researchers, industrialists and policy experts, among others.

The outcome of the indaba and its recommendations are expected to contribute towards the preparation of the 2023 National Budget, which would add impetus to the attainment of Vision 2030.

The conference is being hosted by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and will run under the theme: “Accelerating economic transformation through evidence-based policy making”.

In a pre-meeting brief shared with Business Chronicle yesterday, Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube, said the conference will bring together leading economic scientists, researchers and scholars to exchange views and share experiences and research results on various aspects of the Zimbabwe economy.

“As you may be aware, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has organised the first structured annual international convention on Zimbabwe’s economic development over the period 10-12 August 2022, at the Elephant Hills Hotel in Victoria Falls,” he said.

“Preparations have gone very well and we have received a lot of support and interest for the conference. The main objective of Zedcon 22 is to promote evidence-informed policy making (EIPM), and knowledge management as an important driver of policy dialogue, good policy planning and implementation.

“It’s a platform to demonstrate that the Second Republic has a listening leadership and in the spirit of ‘leaving no-one and no place behind’, and ‘Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabaninilo.”

Prof Ncube said the convention will be an annual event going forward, saying this will help encourage innovative thinking among leading Zimbabwean researchers, development practitioners, policymakers and private sector operators on Zimbabwe’s inclusive and sustainable economic development agenda, which anchors attainment of an upper middle-income economy vision by 2030.

The Bulawayo City Council has expressed readiness to attend the convention, which buttresses the National Development Strategy (NDS1).

Town clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, said it was important for council to attend as it will also assist in council’s budget formulation for 2023.

“The discussions at the said convention will be centred on structural changes in the Zimbabwean economy, assessment of economic growth models and delimitations,” he said.

“The convention has to come up with evidence-based policy formulation and solutions. The recommendations from the convention will contribute towards the preparation of the 2023 National Budget, review of the National Development Strategy (NDS1) and inform Zimbabwe’s growth trajectory towards Vision 2030.

“Council is set to benefit from the convention since it embraced the NDS1, which council also promoted through its corporate Strategy.”

Among the top speakers at the conference will be Prof Ncube, World Bank country director, Ms Marjorie Mpundu and banker Mr Nigel Chanakira, African Diaspora Development Institute(ADDI) founder, Dr Chihombori Quao, Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and Victoria Falls Stock Exchange chief executive officer, Mr Justin Bgoni and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Dr John Mangudya.

The conference will also focus on broad themes, which include informal sector development and poverty reduction, industrialisation and trade policy, fiscal and policy reform and monetary and exchange rate policy.

Other topics to be tackled include the role of capital markets in the development of the country, human capital retention for national development and fiscal incentives and economic sustainability of small and medium enterprises.