By Margaret Kamba 

Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers President Denford Mutashu says the industry is appreciative of His Excellency President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa's efforts to remove the country from the quagmire that it was once in.

He says nobody ever imagined that Zimbabwe would see the development pattern that is currently being seen.

In a two-part series, we share his insights into what the industry appreciates.

"If you look at vision 2030, it is time bound and has got a critical path. We are part of the path that the country has already walked as the business community. 

We contribute quite immensely to policy formulation and implementation, for example, the National Development Strategy NDS1, which has pillars that are focused on drawing the country towards achieving Vision 2030.

If you look at the local content policy, it has resulted in more than 80 percent of goods and services being found in the supermarket shelves across Zimbabwe, a thing that we never thought would be achieved since most industries had closed during the 2007-2008 economic madness.

Coming from that background and achieving the successes that have been posted by His Excellency President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and government in general, it would be folly not to recognise and appreciate the development that has taken place especially in the manufacturing and distribution sectors.

If you travel across the country, there's no shop in the rural or urban centres that is not occupied. If you add the construction of shopping malls, it's massive and attracting big brand shops. The thrust is produce local, consume local because it reduces the foreign currency outflows through the reduction of imports of goods and services that could ordinarily be found, produced, manufactured, and grown here. It's a whole value chain.

So, the vision is quite strategic because it touches from agriculture. The agricultural production that has taken place in this country bearing the El-Nino induced drought that is impending but if you look at the past five or six years, agriculture has transformed land use, has increased and the breath and width of agriculture land has been put to use, we can actually boast of being wheat self-sufficient.

These are Zimbabwean farmers who have been given an opportunity supported by Pfumvudza, the Presidential Input scheme, and many others to support agriculture and agri-business as a value chain.

When you look at that, what it means is that, this is a holistic approach, looking at the whole value chain factoring in the issue of beneficiation and value addition which are very critical components to any country's economy and development trajectory.

So, as a sector, we are quite happy given the level of employment that has been created within the sector, both formal and informal. When you look at the formal and informal sectors, it is predominantly more Zimbabweans who decided to start up and open their own businesses in the retail and wholesale space. The multitudes of Zimbabweans operating within that environment is something that previously did not use to happen.

To help achieve vision 2030 ahead of its time, we are currently working with the Ministry of Finance, ZIMRA and other regulatory agencies for example the Reserve Bank as well as the Ministry of Industry and Commerce just to make sure that the resources that are being deployed by the country to perpetuate the development that we are happy about today have all been predominantly domestic resources. 

80 percent of these are domestic resources that have been harnessed internally despite the sanctions and other internal and external obstacles that may have been poured at the President and the country.

The country has, however, managed to develop. A development that is realistic and tangible.

The infrastructure development that is currently taking place, which started five years ago, is there for all to see.

Investment follows infrastructure. Where a country does not have the right infrastructure in terms of the road network, rail network, and air transportation, it is hard to attract investment.

The development that has taken place, for instance, look at Manhize, iron and steel is going to be produced here. The improvement in the road network, you can testify that has directly benefited the country in terms of attracting investment.

Look at the Beitbridge-Harare road. We spent over ten years anticipating that it was going to happen with just the paperwork. But when President Mnangagwa came through, he quickly moved in to thrash out all the obstacles, engaged local road construction companies and raw material suppliers and ensured that the local people, the Zimbabweans are involved and they were.

This is the development that we are saying we want because it benefits people directly. The Beitbridge road is quite central because it goes into the region.

The President did not end there, he also revamped the Beitbridge border post, which is the biggest in Africa, the cleanest and most efficient.

So this is massive development. Along the highway, there's going to be massive development that will be taking place attracted by the efficient infrastructure being developed.

As a country, we are very appreciative of all the efforts that His Excellency, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, has put into revamping the socio-economic status of the country and the socio-economic status of the business community. 

We are quite happy that when we compare the country with what it used to be, noone ever imagined that Zimbabwe would come out of the quagmire and become of of the most developing countries as said in the recent SADC report."

Tomorrow, we will feature the last part of the interview.