Partner or perish: VP’s rallying cry to industry

SAMANTHA MADE

In a resounding call to action Vice President Constantino Chiwenga challenged Zimbabwe’s industry  to forge transformative partnerships with research institutions and universities to catalyse innovation, improve production capacity, and enhance equipment efficiency.

Speaking with urgency and conviction at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) business conference yesterday, Chiwenga  declared that the path to economic revitalisation lies in the seamless integration of industrial objectives with academic and research capabilities.

“Industry, the manufacturing sector, must go to our researchers, to our institutions of higher and tertiary education and say, ‘We are producing 10 pieces of equipment, we want to accelerate them to produce 100 pieces of equipment. Can you give us a solution?’ And then fund those researchers as the private sector because you are the beneficiaries,” said Chiwenga.

 His message was a pointed reminder that Zimbabwe’s re-industrialisation strategy must be underpinned by strong public-private-academic partnerships.

Chiwenga’s address laid bare a critical gap in Zimbabwe’s industrial ecosystem, a lack of structured collaboration between industry and the country’s wealth of intellectual capital.

The Vice President argued that while Zimbabwe is home to brilliant researchers, particularly among the youth, their potential remains largely untapped due to a disconnect between academic innovation and real-world industrial application.

“The researchers, these young boys and girls who have been gifted, cannot dream of what they need. But if you go to them and you tell them what you need, they will crack their minds and you will have solutions,” he said.

This statement reflects a growing concern in economic policy circles that innovation cannot thrive in a vacuum. It needs direction, funding, and a clear line of sight to commercial application. Chiwenga’s remarks point to a need for structural change in how Zimbabwe’s industrial players approach research and development (R&D).

Economists have long argued that sustained industrial growth hinges on innovation.

In countries that have transitioned from resource-based to knowledge-based economies—such as South Korea and Singapore—the private sector plays a pivotal role in funding R&D, often in partnership with universities.

According to the World Bank , private-sector-driven research accounts for over 70% of industrial innovation in successful emerging markets.

Zimbabwe, by contrast, allocates only a fraction of GDP to R&D, with most of it concentrated in public universities with limited industrial engagement.

The result is a stagnation in manufacturing productivity and limited technological diffusion across key sectors.

Chiwenga’s call therefore comes at a critical juncture, where the revival of Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector must be fueled not only by investment in capital equipment, but also in knowledge creation and technical problem-solving.

The Vice President outlined a vision where private sector players become patrons of innovation. This model, common in high-performing economies, allows for tailored research output that directly addresses industry challenges—ranging from obsolete machinery to inefficiencies in value chains.

By funding research projects and providing student internships and post-graduate fellowships, industries can benefit from customised solutions while building a pipeline of skilled labor that is intimately familiar with their operational needs.

“You tell them what you need, and they will crack their minds,” Chiwenga reiterated, reinforcing the idea that demand-driven innovation is the most effective form of R&D.

This sentiment echoes global best practice, where challenge-based innovation models—such as those seen in Germany’s Fraunhofer Institutes—have bridged the divide between academia and industry with measurable success.

Held annually in Bulawayo, the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair is a bellwether for the country’s industrial direction. This year’s business conference attracted a cross-section of captains of industry, government officials, financiers, and foreign investors.

Chiwenga’s keynote has now set the tone for what could be a transformative year in industrial policy.

Industry insiders say the Vice President’s call aligns with broader government goals under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), which prioritises innovation and science-led industrialisation as drivers of job creation, import substitution, and export growth.

“There’s been a lot of talk about Vision 2030 and re-industrialisation, but unless we fund innovation, we are not going to see breakthroughs,” said a senior executive at the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) who attended the conference.

“This is not just about buying new machines—it’s about thinking smarter, using data, and working with people who understand systems.”

While Chiwenga’s message was well-received, many acknowledge that significant barriers remain.

These include limited access to finance for R&D, regulatory bottlenecks in the commercialization of academic research, and brain drain, which continues to strip the country of its most talented scientists and engineers.

However, some institutions are already responding to this new mandate.

The Harare Institute of Technology (HIT), Midlands State University (MSU), and the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) have all established technology transfer offices aimed at commercialising student and faculty innovations.

What remains is a consistent pipeline of industry-led projects and private funding.

Chiwenga’s rallying cry brings the conversation full circle.

Industrialisation, he argues, is not merely about factories and smokestacks—it is about systems integration, where academia, industry, and government work in lockstep.

This approach is also expected to strengthen Zimbabwe’s regional competitiveness.

With the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) now in effect, local industries must innovate rapidly to keep up with regional rivals, many of whom are already investing heavily in R&D.

Zimbabwe’s re-industrialisation journey, therefore, must not ignore the most accessible and sustainable resource it has, that is its intellectual capital.

As Zimbabwe inches closer to its Vision 2030 ambitions of becoming an upper-middle-income economy, the onus is on both government and industry to convert rhetoric into results. Chiwenga’s message to industry was not just aspirational—it was an economic imperative.

By embracing research collaboration, Zimbabwean firms can unlock latent capacity, drive export-led growth, and build resilience in the face of global supply chain disruptions and technological change.

Chiwenga’s challenge to the private sector may well be the spark needed to ignite a new era of industrial innovation.

“Let us stop working in silos,” he said. “Let us bring our minds together—our researchers, our engineers, our manufacturers—to build a better Zimbabwe.”

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