Business breakfast talks Mbombela economy
Church Unlimited recently hosted a business breakfast with Henri Pieters of Stabilis Chartered Accountants Nelspruit.
The director of Stabilis Chartered Accountants Nelspruit, Henri Pieters, was the speaker at a recent business breakfast, discussing current trends in the economy and how businesses can stay afloat in these times.
Hosted at Church Unlimited on December 1, the breakfast was attended by local business owners, their employees and other stakeholders in the Lowveld business community.
Pieters first gave an overview of the global economy, then broke it down to a national level, after which he delved deeper into local trends seen in Mpumalanga. This included growth forecasts, inflation, record high unemployment, and the positive and negative factors South Africa and Mpumalanga has going for them.
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He highlighted the fact that the City of Mbombela was a major economic role player in the province. It had showed a better average GDP growth than South Africa as a whole from 1996 to 2021, but the forecast for growth between 2022 and 2026 is lower than that of SA.
Going into further detail, Pieters discussed various industries in the city’s contribution to the province’s GDP as well as red and green flags to take note of in the municipality.
After discussing the above and more, he advised those present on how they could stay afloat during these turbulent times.
It is all about accepting the changes around you, adopting them and having a positive attitude throughout.
In their own community, Pieters encouraged business owners and stakeholders to focus on their direct environment – to get involved and make a difference. That starts with family, and further extends to business, work, community, health, security and education.
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He assured all present that there definitely are opportunities in our local economy where one could excel. He highlighted opportunities within tourism, basic essentials, the property market, basic technical services, agriculture, transport and owner-managed businesses like bakeries and mechanics.
Supporting local was one of the takeaways with which he ended. That, and being humble, positive and counting one’s blessings.
Pieters thanked Dr Lennard van Vuuren, the director of economic analysis and research of the Mpumalanga Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Yolanda Naudé, an investment strategist of Citadel, and Linda Grimbeek, the COO of the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism, for their contributions toward the information shared.
