Sadc chairperson and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has called for the region to work out effective financial mechanisms to fund the regional industrialisation strategy.
BY TARISAI MANDIZHA
Sadc heads of State and government are expected to endorse a long-term industrialisation strategy that could help reverse the collapse of the productive sector and plug an influx of cheap imported goods.
Officially opening the Sadc Extraordinary summit in Harare yesterday, Mugabe said since the 2014 Sadc summit in Victoria Falls, a taskforce on regional economy had been working on a regional industrialisation strategy and roadmap.
He said the council of ministers had considered and adopted the recommendations.
“Last but most important, is the need for the region to work out effective financial mechanisms to fund the regional industrialisation strategy,” Mugabe said.
“We cannot expect those who benefit from our status as exporters of raw materials to fund our efforts to wean ourselves from this unequal relationship, a relationship in which they have the prerogative of dictating the terms of trade? Just as we were our own liberators from the colonial bondage and oppression, we have to find the resources to free ourselves from economic bondage.”
He was confident of the success of the Industrialisation strategy which he said if implemented effectively, had the potential of unlocking opportunities beyond borders, leading to sustained economic growth and development.
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“It is my hope that once we have considered and adopted these recommendations, we will move on to the most important task — that of implementing our decisions,” Mugabe said.
Implementing the regional industrialisation strategy, Mugabe said, was imperative to develop the sectors that enhance the effectiveness of this strategy.
Some of the areas will include to ensure that Sadc has a regional infrastructure development master plan and also research and development which was pivotal to innovative approaches needed to create new products.
Mugabe called for collective action on the Sadc region to put in place effective strategies to boost the productive capacity of industries in Africa.
He said the region was endowed with abundant and diverse natural resources. But despite the rich and diverse endowments, about 70% of the people continue to live below the poverty datum line.
“Our region is endowed with abundant and diverse natural resources. Just to illustrate this point, our mineral sector alone contributes to world production about 6% of coal, 7% of nickel, 8% of copper,13% of uranium, 15% of manganese, 18% of cobalt, 21% of zinc, 26% of gold, 41% of chromite, 55% of diamonds and 72% of the platinum group of metals,” Mugabe said.
“But alas, despite the rich and diverse endowments of our region, about 70% of our people continue to live below the poverty datum line.
“By exporting our natural resources in their raw form, we are not only earning marginal benefits from them, but are, in essence, compromising our efforts to create jobs, or diversify our products, or even develop our industries, and are ultimately, exposing our economies to the vagaries of the fluctuations of the global resource markets.”
He said the situation was equally discouraging in other sectors such as agriculture as Sadc countries have remained as sources of unprocessed agricultural produce thus earning a mere 10% of the actual value of products.
