Proudly SA: It is critical to link corporate and small businesses

JOHANNESBURG – This time next week the 9th annual two-day Proudly SA Buy Local Summit & Expo would have been in full swing at the Sandton Convention Centre.

But following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on measures to restrict the spread of the coronavirus on Sunday, we have regrettably had to postpone the event.

Ramaphosa acknowledged the impact the restriction would have on the economy of international travel, movement around the country and of gatherings of more than 100 people, sadly this at a time when we most need any kind of economic and job creation stimulus we can get.

Aside from the planned programme of presentations and panel discussions offering small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) advice and learnings on the first day, and the very specific localisation subject matter put together for the second (under the theme Localisation: Averting a deeper unemployment crisis), the event was to have seen almost 250 businesses exhibiting under one roof, probably the largest expo of qualified, quality local manufacturers and providers of products and services that you will find in the country.

We spoke last week about the need to make the inclusion of small business into the mainstream economy a priority. Specifically the expo component of the summit offered an opportunity for all corporate buyers and supply chain managers to come and source a broad range of products which they can absorb into their procurement processes.