Economic growth and the alleviation of poverty are challenges that government should not tackle alone, but rather, key stakeholders should share the responsibility of building a thriving economy together with government, says multinational mining company Anglo American.
Speaking at the Enterprise Development Conference last week, Anglo American enterprise development initiative Zimele MD Hlonela Lupuwana said that Anglo American’s mandate through Zimele is to facilitate the development of commercially viable and sustainable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“This being the case, we aim to use our expertise, resources and supply chain to assist in building viable SMEs and sustainable communities. The most valuable resource available to us in the pursuit of our mission is the Anglo American supply chain and our success will be defined by the extent to which we can leverage this supply chain to advance our mission,” he noted.
This being Anglo’s mandate, Lupuwana highlighted that the company realises government’s imperative to grow and nurture the small business sector and this has since been evident in the recent establishment of the Small Business Development Ministry, which aims to support the development of small business in the country.
“Having operations across the world, we draw on global experience, which has taught us that developing economies are built better in a collaborative manner as this stimulates enterprise development and creates opportunities that will grow the economy,” he indicated.
As a result, Anglo believes that, when government and industry work together to find ways to amplify their collective impact in enterprise development, the outcomes are guaranteed to be effective.
Having formed Zimele 25 years ago to assist in driving growth in South African mining communities, the success of the initiative has led to Anglo adopting the model in other parts of the world where it operates. Owing to this, the International Finance Corporation has prescribed Zimele as the best approach globally for companies seeking to integrate local SMEs into their supply chains.
“The enterprise development sector has grown and improved, with many different organisations rolling out initiatives of varying degrees of efficiencies, relevance and impact, however, more still needs to be done to get the full impact from all our efforts,” stated Lupuwana, adding that the confer- ence, therefore, is a rallying point where all stakeholders can join forces, leverage synergies and develop meaningful partner-ships that truly deliver on shared goals and objectives.