Harare, 13 August 2022 (TDI): The inaugural Zimbabwe Economic Development Conference (ZEDCON) took place from 10 August to 12 August 2022. The event was organized in Victoria Falls at the Elephant Hills Hotel. It was hosted by Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.

The year’s theme of the conference was “Accelerating Economic Transformation through Evidence-Based Policy Formulation”.

Agenda of the Conference

The main agenda of the conference was the formulation and implementation of a strong structure for vision 2030. The theme for the conference aligns with the 2023 Budget Strategy Paper’s theme, which is “Accelerating Economic Transformation”.

Moreover, the conference seeks to engage various stakeholders regarding policy implementation. Additionally, ZEDCON 2022 focuses on five significant thematic areas.

The key areas include informal sector development and poverty reduction, industrialisation, and trade policy. In addition, public and private investments, monetary and exchange rate policies, and fiscal policy reforms were also a part of it.

Deputy Minister of  Finance and Development of Zimbabwe, Clemence Chiduwa said, “Government’s priority is to restore market confidence as well as achieve exchange rate and inflation stability.”

Chiduwa added, “The 2023 Macro-Fiscal Framework and Policy reforms focus on sustainable fiscal management, supportive monetary policy measures, and addressing structural bottlenecks.”

ZEDCON 2022

The inaugural ZEDCON 2022 contributed to the formulation of the 2023 national budget. In addition, it also reviewed the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1). Furthermore, the conference was significant in terms of reinforcing and re-shaping Zimbabwe’s growth trajectory going forward.

Adopting a new transformative approach anchoring on national aspirations is an objective of the Zimbabwean government. Moreover, the government envisions economic growth and stability at a growth rate of five per cent each year.

Moreover, under the transformation agenda of 2030, Zimbabwe is aiming to achieve a prosperous and empowered upper-middle-income society.