Industrialisation in SADC: Can the region make it?

Lazarus Sauti

Without strong industries to create jobs and add value to raw materials, countries within and across the Southern African Development Community risk remaining chained up in joblessness and poverty.

Strong industries, according to United Nations Economic Commission for Africa executive secretary, Carlos Lopes, have the potential to transform or diversify economies.

“A growing industrial sector is key to sustained overall economic as well as human development of a country due to the multiplier effect insofar as it promotes value-addition and employment generation,” concurs economist, Munetsi Madakufamba.

This means industrialisation cannot be considered a luxury, but a necessity for SADC’s transformation as it is a pre-condition for the region to achieve inclusive development.

“It is, therefore, necessary for the region to upgrade and modernise its industrial base to grow and diversify economies which have largely depended on exportation of primary commodities. Industrialisation and value-addition by local industries will contribute to deepening regional economic integration through enhancing intra-regional trade in the region,” says another economist, Beatrice Kiraso.

Sharing the same views, Malawian President, Professor Arthur Mutharika, adds: “Within SADC, it is critical that we continue to strengthen industrialisation in our countries, through the implementation of the key facets of our industrialisation pillar.”

Because of this, SADC chairperson and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe highlights the need for the region to pursue beneficial economic strategies with its neighbours if it is to add value to its vast resources as well as industrialise.

“There is need to industrialise our region; there is need for us to work together as much as possible to undertake the industralisation. SADC should wean itself from exporting raw materials, but instead seek to create value chains that lead to the exportation of finished goods,” asserts President Mugabe. He believes SADC countries should co-operate to industrialise and leverage their diverse resources for sustainable economic and social development through beneficiation and value addition.

“Our region has abundant resources, which resources, instead of being sold in raw form, at very low prices, must instead be exploited and beneficiated, in order to add value and cost to those products which we eventually export. This process should assist us in our efforts to industrialise, and in turn, increase employment opportunities for our people,” President Mugabe says.

Urging “reality check”, President Mugabe also encouraged SADC countries to be redirected by the reviewed Regional Indicative Strategic Development Programme Plan – a comprehensive development and implementation framework developed to guide the Regional Integration agenda of the SADC over a period of fifteen years (2005-2020).

The recently held SADC summit set the tone, it is now up to governments in the region, individually and collectively, to develop supportive policy and investment guidelines that are essential to attract long-term investors.

More so, governments should ensure sustained investment and improvements in infrastructure throughout the region. This is so because developing industries requires sustained electricity supply, smooth transportation and other very basic infrastructure facilities, which at present are still not enough to ensure unhindered economic activities in respective SADC countries.

Member states must, as a matter of necessity, therefore, prioritise infrastructure in transport and harbours, energy, irrigation and Information and Communication Technology so as to accelerate integration and intra-regional trade and, more critically, industrialisation.

Executive Secretary for SADC, Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, however, assures that the region is giving attention to a number of infrastructure projects, adding that “the region cannot have trade in isolation without having infrastructure which can facilitate trade and economic development as a whole.” Infrastructure aside, education plays a crucial role too. Without education, the region cannot succeed in its drive towards industrialisation.

Therefore, SADC countries must establish research centres as well as training centres of excellence if they are to truly industrialise and benefit from human as well as natural resources.

Furthermore, they need to harmonise qualifications and curricular, at regional level, so that young people can train anywhere and still be able to work in any part of the region where their skills are needed. African Union Commission chairperson, Dr Nkosana Dlamini Zuma, advises education and training institutions not only to train young people within the confines of their physical buildings but to utilise modern technologies to have virtual education.

While much responsibility lies with African governments, the continent’s private sector must play its part to tackle poverty and drive social progress by ensuring that long-term value addition – as well as short-term gain – is built into their business models.

Public-private partnerships should be developed to stimulate massive investments in education and infrastructure sectors, which could have a multiplier effect on economic growth. The region is ripe for industrialisation.

Accordingly, SADC countries must begin to see it as a tool for socio-economic transformation of their societies, and aggressively pursue industrialisation to transform the region’s hard-earned political independence into economic independence.