PRESIDENT’S REMARKS

The year 2020 was characterised by the COVID-19 pandemic that hit not only Zimbabwe but the rest of the World. The pandemic continues to weigh on business, and resulted in the disruption of global supply chains for both raw materials and final products and services and a slowdown of global financial flows. Dr Tinashe Manzungu The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce recognises the role that business plays to achieve our shared goal during this crisis, to maintain jobs and business continuity; to support health, stability and social well-being of the Zimbabwe populace. Despite the effects of the pandemic the Chamber continued and continues to make strides in servicing its members given that business is the antidote for an economic recovery, hence this report outlines achievements by the Chamber during the year 2020. Over the year, the Chamber continued to engage with policy makers and engagements continued to provide a harmonious and productive working relationship between Government and the Private Sector. While the year has been characterised by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic, the Chamber acknowledges efforts by the Government in addressing constraints on the economic front. These include;

• Introduction of a forex auction system which has somehow helped in both price discovery of our exchange rate as well as availability of forex. Quite a number of our members can now access forex which was not feasible in the first half of 2020
• Infrastructure expansion projects which are domestically funded. Notable infrastructure projects include the Beitbridge - Chirundu Highway and the expansion of the Robert Mugabe International Airport
• Zimbabwe ranking third on Budget Transparency in Africa in terms of the Open Budget Survey (OBS) 2019
• 2020 Ease of Doing Business Ranking – where Zimbabwe managed to register some significant improvements, moving from position 155 in the world up to 140 out of 190 countries However, the Chamber continues to engage Government on challenges which continue to weigh on the ease of doing business. The year 2020 saw the Chamber rebranding in line with the modern trends and demands of the new economy. The Chamber also launched the ZNCC Training Centre in 2020. These initiatives were carried out to bring out chambers desire to speak into future and emphasise its role in the economy

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The Women’s Desk held its 7^th highly regarded Women in Enterprise Conference & Awards passionately known as WECA on the 20.^TH of September 2019 as Cresta Lodge. As expected, the conference and awards dinner attracted 380 delegates. There was representation from the relevant government ministry, commercial banks, traders, manufacturers, business-people, service providers and professionals from different business sectors.

The conference deliberated on exciting topics such as  Applying Principles for Competitive Women Owned Business Excellence through Corporate Governance, Regional Trade & Overcoming Institutionalized Gender Barriers in Pursuit of Women Owned Business (AfCTA) Adventure and Embracing Digitalisation to lessen the Family–Business Burden on women.  The Awards Gala Dinner was all glitz & glam and saw 12 Award Categories up for presentation to the outstanding Women Entrepreneurs. A special thank you to Swedish Embassy, Nedbank Zimbabwe, ZB Bank, NRichards Group, Lafarge Zimbabwe, Dairibord, GAA Marketing, Surdax Investments, Nelspot, Zuva Printers, speakers, panelists and all delegates  for making  WECA 2019 a success