Zambia’s external economic relationships have moved from the margins of foreign policy to the centre of its growth strategy. Copper still funds the state, but the terms on which Zambia trades, borrows, transports and attracts capital are increasingly set in rooms outside the country.
This is the Zambian Economist series on economic diplomacy. It examines the institutions that conduct Zambia’s external economic engagement, the position the country occupies in a contested global economy, and what diversification beyond copper would actually require.
Part One — The instrument
Economic Diplomacy as a Catalyst for Zambia Economic Transformation: Opportunities, Challenges and the Way Forward
What economic diplomacy is when stripped of the ceremonial, which institutions actually conduct it, where Zambia’s missions are under-resourced relative to their commercial mandate, and the gap between trade promotion on paper and deals closed.
Part Two — The position
Repositioning Zambia in the Global Economy: The Strategic Role of Economic Diplomacy in Trade, Investment and Growth
Zambia as a landlocked economy in a period of corridor competition and critical-minerals demand: the Lobito Corridor, rail versus road economics, and what it takes to convert geographic disadvantage into transit advantage.
Part Three — The diversification
Beyond Copper: How Economic Diplomacy Can Drive Zambia Economic Diversification and Sustainable Development
Why diversification has been declared policy for fifty years without arriving, what non-traditional exports and tourism realistically contribute, how AfCFTA changes the arithmetic, and the Dutch disease pressures a strong copper price creates.
Related analysis
The structural picture these pieces sit inside is set out in Zambia’s Economy in 2026: A Business Guide to the Numbers That Matter, and the copper dependence at its centre in Copper and the Kwacha: How the Link Actually Works. The domestic policy counterpart to this series is The Economics of Zambia 2026 Election.
Two developments this series tracks: the Lusaka–Ndola dual carriageway financing structure and the African Rivers proposal for Barotseland, both of which test whether infrastructure can be delivered without adding to the debt stock.
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