JOHANNESBURG — Sadc member countries have been urged to work together to improve their citizens’ lives while partnering the private sector as envisioned by the region’s industrialisation strategy and roadmap approved in 2015.
BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI in JOHANNESBURG, South Africa
The call was made yesterday by South Africa’s International Relations and Co-operation minister Maita Nkoane-Mashabane at the official opening of Sadc Industrialisation Week in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Nkoane-Mashabane said it was imperative for the regional bloc to work as a united force to ensure peace, stability and sustainable development.
“We should work collectively to improve our people’s livelihoods by partnering with the private sector in developing our industries,” she said.
The South African minister said the region had prioritised improving value chains as a way of creating attractive and competitive investment around agro-processing, minerals beneficiation and service delivery.
“There are ongoing processes to ensure that Africa transits to value-adding, as this can unlock much more benefits, but there remain deep-seated structural fault lines in Sadc with low levels of exports,” she said.
Nkoane-Mashabane underscored the need to develop regional value chains and integrate them into global value chains and increase export diversification.
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Meanwhile, Afreximbank senior manager Gainmore Zanamwe said the development agenda pushed by Sadc was in line with the bank’s objectives.
“Our role is to work with you to ensure that the strategies are implemented and the private sector has to be at the forefront of these initiatives,” he said.
“While a number of African countries are trying to make individual efforts in industrialisation and trade, there is need for joint efforts to address the current bottlenecks that we face.”
Zanamwe said Afreximbank had put in place practical interventions including online marketing to connect sellers and buyers, settlements and clearing solutions to facilitate trade and trading in local currencies with the backing of their central banks.
The Sadc Industrialisation Week, running from July 31 to August 4 under the theme, Partnering With the Private Sector in Developing Industry and Value Chains, is an annual regional public-private engagement forum aimed at fostering new opportunities for intra-regional trade and investment.
