Improving the Competitiveness of the Manufacturing Sector in Zimbabwe

This study explores Zimbabwe’s industrial decline, and in the process attempts to answer the question - How did everything go so wrong? This study also profers solutions. The time period of this research is 1980 to 2013.

The competitive industrial performance (CIP) index is the main tool of analysis in this research.

The overall objective of this thesis is to explore ways of how the manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe can be resuscitated and its general competiveness improved.

Chapter One provides the introduction and puts the research into context. It provides the problem statement, defines the core theme and its theoretical context in both classical and contemporary economics. Chapter Two looks at the underlying literature available. Chapter Three deals with the research methodology applied in this study.  Chapter Four goes through the adopted 12 case studies. Chapter Five looks at research findings and makes recommendations based on empirical evidence and the economic theories. In this chapter there are also general conclusions and details of the recommended model. The Thesis observes that the informal sector has grown and has been able to sustain Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector when formal structures had collapsed in the period 2000-2008. It has become dynamic and its vibrancy and self-sustaining nature can no longer be ignored as the country makes efforts to rebuild its manufacturing sector. Also, the informal sector’s capital needs are affordable compared to the recapitalisation needs of the formal manufacturing sector. The informal sector is basically the Siya-so. This study has proposed an approach/model it has called the Siya-so Dynamic Model(SDM).

The SDM is a simplified but sustainable model which depicts a direct albeit a  departure from the current rigid lines of commerce. This thesis, therefore, profers the SDM as the way forward if Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector is to regain competitiveness.