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Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr John Mangudya (right) chats with industrialists Dr Calisto Jokonya (left) and Mr Kumbirai Katsande

A number of business executives and senior Government officials spoke at the over-subscribed 2016 Economic Outlook Symposium organised by The Herald Business in partnership with the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries last week Thursday in Harare.

Here are some of the memorable quotes.

Emphasising the need to prioritise production and productivity, labour economist Dr Godfrey Kanyeze said:

“In Zimbabwe there is a culture of consumption. Everyone wants to eat. But we have to ask what is it that you want to eat? Is it there . . . let’s bake the cake before we talk of eating it.”

On the need to timely monitor, evaluate and control progress of government policies, he said:

“We move in the wrong direction without checking, then one year goes by and after miles we check back and realize we are going in the wrong direction, then we have to walk back.”

Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Minister Patrick Zhuwao said:

“I cannot package the Indigenisation Act differently and my responsibility is to ensure that there is compliance to the law and the frameworks gazetted recently are about compliance and it is as simple as that. I am not here to discuss or negotiate whether indigenisation is good or bad, it is an Act and a law of the land so I am here to implement it.

“We cannot sugar coat the Act in any way because it is a law of the land and everything is all about compliance to the law. Apart from being called the New Sherriff in town you can now call me the New Start Centre because I will tell you everything the way it is.”

RBZ governor Dr Mangudya: “We are exporting both the export proceeds and the product. I even say that in my school of economics, I was taught that when you talk about GDP, you talk about the product plus exports minus imports, but here we are also exporting the currency.

Chairman, University of Zimbabwe Economic Department Dr Pheneas Kadenge: “There is the issue of foreign direct investment, which is needed to complement domestic investments and I hope that the Minister Honorable Zhuwao at some point was misquoted because there was a point where he was quoted as saying we don’t need foreign direct investment and I am sure he was misquoted because he is a trained economist and he graduated with a Masters Degree in Economics from our department at the University of Zimbabwe, so I think he was misquoted because to think that we don’t need FDI is unbelievable, we definitely need FDI in order to grow.”