Editorial Comment: Look within to fund Sadc Industry Strategy

zimpWE hail the adoption of the Sadc Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap anchored on competitiveness and regional integration and hope that it will expedite the growth of the economies in the bloc while creating jobs and boosting intra-regional trade. We urge the bloc to quickly look for funding to implement the Strategy Roadmap because it is critical to the region.

The Sadc Extraordinary summit held in Harare on Wednesday adopted the Industrialisation Strategy and reaffirmed the importance of industrial development in poverty alleviation and the economic emancipation of the people of the region. The industrial strategy, according to a communiqué released at the end of the summit, was aligned to the continental vision, Agenda 2063, a global strategy aimed at optimising the use of Africa’s resources for the benefit of its people.

“Summit underscored the critical importance of infrastructure in support of industrialisation and the need to explore appropriate funding mechanisms to support the implementation of the Industrialisation Strategy. Summit directed the Secretariat to finalise the development of a costed Action Plan to facilitate the urgent implementation of the Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap,” read the communiqué.

The Summit directed the Industrialisation Strategy be accorded top priority in the implementation of the revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (2015 to 2020).

“Summit approved the Revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (2015-2020) that will guide the implementation of Sadc programmes in the next five years, with four major priority areas, namely Industrial Development and Market Integration, Infrastructure in Support of Regional Integration, Peace and Security Cooperation as a prerequisite or regional integration and Special Programmes of regional dimension,” the communiqué read.

We commend the region for coming up with a well thought out plan and call on the Sadc members to support it fully and ensure that it is implemented fully for the benefit of their citizens.

The Sadc region has identified industrialisation as one of the main recognised drivers of the regional integration and we believe this strategy will assist in that regard. The strategy will facilitate accelerated industrialisation through effective and practical interventions while promoting and enabling the region to use its diverse resources to achieve economic and social development through beneficiation and value addition.

Industrial development has been identified as one of the main drivers of integration in southern Africa as the region moves away from an economic path built on consumption and commodity exports onto a sustainable developmental path based on value-addition and beneficiation.

Sadc Heads of State and Government adopted the Sadc Industrial Development Framework at the region’s 34th summit in Victoria Falls in August last year and directed that the 15-member bloc develop a roadmap and strategy document on how to implement the industrial framework. The adoption of the Strategy is therefore the culmination of the hard work done by a Ministerial Task Force on Regional Economic Integration, which is made up of ministers of trade and industry, finance, economic planning and infrastructure development which was mandated to urgently agree on a strategy and roadmap for the industrialisation of the region.

Sadc member states correctly acknowledge that industrial development is central to the diversification of their economies, development of productive capacity, and the creation of employment in order to reduce poverty and set their economies on a more sustainable growth path.

There is general agreement across the region that industrialisation is the essence of development and creates job opportunities and facilitates more useful linkages across the agricultural, mining and service sectors, between rural and urban economies, and across consumer, intermediate and capital goods industries. We believe this is critical but a key challenge for southern Africa is that the region has hitherto relied on an economic growth path built on consumption and commodity exports rather than one that places emphasis on industrialisation.

The challenge facing most countries in the Sadc region is how to transform their economies from being raw resource-dependent to ones that enjoy beneficiated products and are technology driven, dynamic and diversified.

In this regard, Zimbabwe, as Sadc chair, has played a leading role in ensuring that this aspect is incorporated into the Sadc Industrialisation Strategy premised on its much vaunted economic blueprint — the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation.

Opening the Sadc summit on Wednesday, President Robert Mugabe said Sadc must free itself from economic bondage and reliance on donors by funding and implementing the value addition strategies for its abundant natural resources.

He said it was imperative for the bloc to adopt and fund its drive to beneficiate its mineral and agricultural resources without looking elsewhere for support.

We agree with the President and urge Sadc to be innovative and seek funding for its Strategy from within its member states and not rely on donors who might want to further their own agendas.

By using its own resources, the bloc will drive its own industrialisation strategy and not be indebted to foreign donors.

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