Zimbabwe is at a pivotal juncture in its national development journey. The expiry of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) in December 2025 ushers in the formulation of its successor, the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2), which will guide the nation from January 2026 towards the realization of Vision 2030. This vision—transforming Zimbabwe into an upper-middle-income economy by 2030—demands bold policy choices, innovative strategies, and broad-based economic transformation.
The private sector, the media, the Government, academia, and international consultants from Canada and India will grace the conference. A big learning moment will come from the Indian consultants who worked on the Rwandan miracle.
Attainment of Vision 2030 requires a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of US$4,516. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) notes the 2024 GDP per capita as US$2,090. It therefore implies that, assuming a population of 19 million by 2030, Zimbabwe’s GDP has to be about US$86 billion for it to attain upper-middle-income status. That means growing the GDP from the current US$44.4 billion as of December 2024. Statistically, this translates to a cumulative economic growth of about 94% over the six-year period.
To achieve this, Zimbabwe would need to sustain an average annual growth rate of approximately 12%, which is far above the current 6% trajectory. This reality underscores the urgency of rethinking Zimbabwe’s economic structure, growth patterns, challenges, and opportunities within both domestic and global contexts.
The biggest motivator is that, at the apex, at the Presidential level, there is policy clarity that Zimbabwe has to transform the ease of doing business and taxation to ensure prosperity. The Zimbabwe Economic Competitiveness Conference 2025 is therefore convened to provide a platform for stakeholders to deliberate on the structural reforms, policy innovations, and competitiveness strategies necessary to feed into and shape NDS2.
The Conference will interrogate Zimbabwe’s economic structure, growth patterns, and challenges within global and regional contexts, while identifying practical pathways to unlock investment, enhance productivity, and accelerate inclusive growth. Ultimately, the Conference aims to contribute directly to the design of NDS2 in ways that ensure Zimbabwe’s economic transformation and competitiveness, in line with the aspirations of Vision 2030.