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Prosper Ndlovu Business Editor
THE Ministry of Industry and Commerce has invited input from captains of industry towards the Sadc Indicative Industrial Strategy Policy (RSDP), a regional blue-print aimed at accelerating economic growth in the bloc.

Industry and Commerce Minister Mike Bimha is head of the 15-member Sadc ministerial taskforce on regional economic development after the country took over the rotational chair of the regional grouping last August.

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has confirmed receiving an invite for contributions and urged its members to participate.

“The Ministry of Industry and Commerce is inviting CZI members to provide input into Sadc (RSDP), which is a regional strategy to assist the region to accelerate industrialisation and achieve socio-economic transformation through value addition and beneficiation of its diverse natural resources,” said CZI in a notice.

The invite for input into the strategy is in line with the resolutions made at the end of the Sadc Summit in August 2014 where the ministerial taskforce on regional economic integration was tasked to meet by February 2015, and agree on a strategy and roadmap for industrialisation of the region.

In order to implement the summit decision, the Sadc secretariat recruited national experts from member states to assist with preparing national reports, which will be used as basis for formulating the regional strategy and roadmap.

As such captains of industry in the country are expected to hold a national consultative meeting on the development of the Sadc industrialisation strategy and roadmap.

The meeting would provide national experts the opportunity to present a draft national report for consideration.

The Sadc council of ministers has identified four key strategic areas to steer regional industrial development and enhance increased economic growth.

These include liberalisation and industrialisation, which is linked to trade partnerships, infrastructure development, peace and security and a special programme on education.

There have been increased calls for Sadc to fast track co-ordination of measures of effective implementation of the industrial development policy framework whose proposals have been on the table for years.

Sadc ministers of trade are expected to meet next month to present a finalised plan and implementation strategy showing the activities to be done.