Online Reporter
Kuda Bwititi
Politics, Foreign Affairs and Opinions Editor
Zimbabwe is preparing to host the 25th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Heads of State and Government Summit in October and assume the chairmanship of the regional bloc.
For Zimbabwe, the summit comes at an important point in the country’s economic transformation and offers a strategic platform to connect its regional responsibilities with the central objective of Vision 2030 — building an empowered and prosperous upper-middle-income society.
The 25th COMESA Summit, scheduled for October 22, will run under the theme, “One market, one future: Advancing inclusive industrialisation, investment and regional integration in COMESA.”
The choice of theme is particularly relevant to Zimbabwe because it speaks directly to some of the country’s most important economic priorities.
Vision 2030 envisages Zimbabwe becoming an industrialising, knowledge-based upper-middle-income economy by 2030, with export-led growth, value addition, investment, employment creation and a more competitive business environment forming important pillars of that transformation.
The connection with COMESA is therefore straightforward.
Zimbabwe cannot achieve sustained economic transformation by looking only within its national borders.
A modern industrial economy requires access to markets large enough to support mass production, investment large enough to finance industrial expansion and regional value chains capable of connecting producers to consumers across borders.
That is precisely where regional integration becomes economically important.
COMESA brings together 21 countries, more than 600 million people and an economy estimated at about US$1 trillion. The bloc describes itself as one of the continent’s largest markets for trade and investment.
For Zimbabwean businesses, this represents a market substantially larger than the domestic economy.
The opportunity is particularly important for manufacturers and agricultural producers whose ability to expand is often constrained by the size and purchasing power of the local market.
A larger integrated market creates opportunities for economies of scale, investment and industrial expansion. It can make it commercially viable to establish production lines that would be difficult to sustain if companies were dependent exclusively on domestic demand.
It also makes the region more attractive to international investors, who are often interested not merely in the size of one national market but in whether an investment can provide access to a wider regional and continental market.
This is where the COMESA chairmanship intersects directly with Vision 2030.
Zimbabwe’s economic strategy increasingly places emphasis on moving from the export of raw materials towards value addition and beneficiation. The country’s National Development Strategy 2, covering 2026 to 2030, identifies structural transformation and investment across value chains as central to achieving sustainable and inclusive growth.
The challenge is to convert that policy direction into commercially sustainable production.
A farmer producing more maize, tobacco, horticultural products or livestock products needs markets beyond the farm gate. A mining company producing lithium, nickel, gold or other minerals needs an industrial ecosystem capable of processing those resources into higher-value products. Manufacturers need reliable markets in which they can sell competitively.
Regional integration can provide part of that missing link.
But integration cannot remain a political slogan.
The real question for Zimbabwe’s COMESA chairmanship is whether the country can help turn regional agreements into conditions that businesses and ordinary citizens can actually experience.
Trade facilitation is one obvious area.
COMESA has already established mechanisms intended to reduce the cost and complexity of cross-border trade. Its Free Trade Area was established in 2000, while the bloc is expanding the use of electronic certificates of origin and electronic single-window systems to simplify customs procedures. Zimbabwe is among the countries implementing the COMESA electronic certificate of origin and electronic single window.
These initiatives matter because regional integration is ultimately judged at the border.
If a Zimbabwean manufacturer can produce competitively but faces delays, duplicated documentation, high transport costs or unpredictable border procedures, the existence of a regional trade agreement becomes less meaningful.
The COMESA chairmanship should therefore be used to push practical measures that reduce the cost of doing business across borders.
Zimbabwe can also use the platform to promote regional value chains.
Instead of African countries competing against one another primarily as exporters of raw materials, the region can increasingly specialise in different stages of production.
Zimbabwe’s mineral resources, agricultural base, energy potential, manufacturing capacity and human capital could be linked to complementary capabilities in neighbouring and other COMESA economies.
The same principle applies to agriculture.
Zimbabwe’s agricultural recovery and growing horticultural ambitions will require reliable export markets. Regional markets can provide an important first destination for processed foods, fertiliser, agricultural equipment, pharmaceuticals and other products before companies graduate to more distant international markets.
Industrialisation, meanwhile, requires more than factories.
It requires reliable electricity, transport infrastructure, digital connectivity, skills, finance and predictable regulation.
This makes the COMESA agenda relevant to the broader Vision 2030 programme. Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce has identified inclusive industrialisation, commercialisation, value addition, competitiveness and regional integration among its core responsibilities.
The regional market can therefore complement domestic interventions already being undertaken to revive manufacturing and promote value chains.
The COMESA Business Forum accompanying the summit should consequently be treated as an economic instrument rather than simply another item on the conference programme.
Zimbabwe should use the forum to present bankable investment opportunities, facilitate meetings between investors and local companies and promote specific projects in mining, energy, agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure, tourism and digital services.
The objective should be measurable.
The success of the business forum should ultimately be reflected in investment commitments, joint ventures, export contracts, technology-transfer arrangements and new regional value chains.
