Deep structural reforms crucial for Zimbabwe

Published: 11 August 2025

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has warned that Zimbabwe's goal of achieving upper-middle-income economy status by 2030 will remain elusive without urgent and deep structural reforms, citing entrenched informalisation and weak industrial capacity as key threats.

In its latest industry newsletter covering January to June 2025, CZI revealed that policy engagement dominated its activities in the first half of the year, with 41 percent of its 260 stakeholder engagements being policy-related. These included formal consultations, direct lobbying, regulatory support for members, and participation in national and sectoral forums.

The warning comes as official statistics show that informalisation now accounts for 76.1 percent of all economic activity. Economists caution that such high levels of informality shrink the tax base, deter productive investment, and undermine institutional capacity, making it difficult to sustain the growth and competitiveness needed for Vision 2030.

"Our findings show that developing complexity in Zimbabwe's economy is a long-term task that relies on key structural conditions," CZI said.

"Macro-economic stability is a prerequisite. It enables long-term planning, investment and credit growth. Ease of doing business is necessary to support industrial development; processes must be efficient, and the regulatory environment must be predictable. Competitiveness is also essential—reducing the regulatory and tax burden lowers the cost of doing business, while intellectual property protection encourages innovation and investment."

CZI stressed the need to deepen local manufacturing capacity through a value-chain approach it terms ‘Manufacturing for Manufacturing', aimed at rebuilding broken supply links to increase local content thresholds.

"Formalisation supports traceability, access to finance, compliance with standards, and readiness for export markets," the industrial body noted. "While we do not ignore the informal sector, complex industries grow within formal economic systems."

The manufacturing lobby also urged stakeholders to align with the upcoming National Development Strategy 2 (NDS 2), which will guide Zimbabwe's economic policy through to 2030.

"Industrialisation must be at the core of the NDS 2 and Vision 2030," CZI said. "Economic complexity and sophistication cannot be achieved without industrial transformation, and this requires a clear, coordinated approach to deliver the structural reforms Zimbabwe needs by 2030."

Economists say that unless formalisation, governance reforms, and capital attraction are prioritised, Vision 2030 risks remaining a political aspiration rather than an achievable milestone.
- newsday

Tags: Reforms,