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SADC finalizes draft strategy and roadmap on industrialization

Xinhua, April 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Council of Ministers meeting opened in Harare Monday to consider a draft strategy and roadmap on industrialization aimed at accelerating industrialization in the 15-member regional grouping.

The meeting precedes a one-day extraordinary summit of SADC Heads of State and Government that will be held in Harare Wednesday to consider and adopt the strategy and roadmap.

Chairperson of the SADC Council of Ministers and Zimbabwean Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi told delegates at the opening of the meeting that the roadmap spans over a period of 48 years (2015-2063) during which the region will seek to industrialize in a three-phased approach.

"During this period, the SADC region will see itself progress from being factor-driven (2015-2021) to being investment driven (2021-2020) and beyond that to being an innovation-driven economy (2051-2063) with high levels of economic growth, competitiveness, incomes and employment," Mumbengegwi said.

He said the roadmap recognizes that industrial policy formulation and implementation will largely be undertaken at the national level and that its success will depend on forging effective partnerships between governments and the private sector.

"It also seeks to engender major economic and technological transformation at national and regional levels, aimed at accelerating growth and enhancing comparative and competitive advantages of the economies of the region," Mumbengegwi said.

The roadmap, among others, outlines objectives, challenges, interventions as well as programs, outcomes, and the key performance indicators under the three core pillars of the strategy, namely industrialization, competitiveness and regional integration, Mumbengegwi said.

SADC executive secretary Stergomena Lawrence Tax said once approved by SADC leaders, the strategy will set the region's path to industrialization and socio-economic prosperity.

"The strategy is expected to be a living policy framework that will guide our region in its quest to socio-economic transformation through industrialization, contributing to sustainable development, poverty reduction and thus improved livelihood," she said.

The decision to formulate a SADC strategy and roadmap on industrialization was reached at the 34th SADC Heads of State and Government Summit held in Zimbabwe in 2014, with the aim of enhancing the region's capacity to beneficiate and value add its natural resources for greater socio-economic benefit.

Currently, the bulk of the region's products are exported in raw form, a situation that deprives the region maximum value from its natural resources. Endi