Southern Africa: SADC Pins Hope For Growth On South Africa
By Staff Writer
The newly elected Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chairman, President Mugabe said on Monday August 18 in Harare that South Africa is in good position to take charge in leading other regional countries in building their manufacturing base to ensure collective socio-economic transformation due to its comparative industrial advantage.
The Zimbabwean president said involving the economic giant into regional industrialization efforts would facilitate reciprocal trade and not open other countries to large-scale importation of South African products.
Addressing a press conference at the end of the 34th Ordinary Summit of SADC Heads of state and government in Harare on Monday August 18, Mugabe said it was critical for the region to place emphasizes on value addition and beneficiation ahead of market liberalization.
He said collective industrialization would help all regional countries derive higher value from their resources.
“But in the process, we also appeal to South Africa, which is highly industrialized, to lead us in this and to work with us and co-operate with us and not just to regard the rest of our countries as open markets for their products...because we want a reciprocal relationship in which we sell to each other and not just receiving from one source.” he said
Mugabe said SADC was actively working towards its industrialization objective and would convene a Summit specifically dedicated to the subject before May 2015.
“Trade ministers; have been tasked to strengthen the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan’s industrialization pillar to establish a relationship between industrialization and market liberalization,” he said.
Mugabe said market liberalization was futile without first building manufacturing capacity.
“Companies come together or different countries come together if they are producing the same product. What prevents them from coming together, creating a much larger production base so that the secondary industries, the factories they are going to establish, will rely on a larger base of primary goods to which they add value,” he said.
Mugabe’s tenure at the helm of SADC aims to establish and consolidate the Regional Development Fund to finance its programmes and reduce donor-dependence.
He urged swift implementation of Summit decisions that benefit Southern African citizens, and also pledged to amplify SADC’s voice at different forums.
“The decisions that we make will only be meaningful to the people if we implement them. We, therefore, need to improve our scorecard on that front and for that, during my tenure as your Chairman, I pledge to represent the interests of our region at various forays so that the SADC voice programmes and projects, are ever present. This is a task that cannot be accomplished by the Chair alone.”
President Mugabe took over SADC chairmanship on Sunday August 17 and will over the next year lead the regional bloc towards its major objective of social and economic transformation through value addition and beneficiation.
Meanwhile, United Kingdom has pledged to continue assisting SADC which is now under the chairmanship of irrespective of their difference with President Mugabe.
In an interview soon after President Mugabe assumed the chairmanship of the regional body at the British Ambassador to Zimbabwe Ms Deborah Bronnert said London would not dictate the leadership of SADC.
Well it is up to SADC to decide who the leadership of SADC should be and clearly that’s a matter for SADC. I am sure that our relationship with SADC will continue. We have always worked with SADC and nothing will change,” she said.
Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister said it was a good development that Britain was recognizing SADC under the leadership of Mugabe.
“It is a good development that Britain has said it is going to support SADC under President Mugabe. It marks a new era since London has been hostile to Harare.”
Mutsvangwa said Britain should now work on total lifting of the illegal sanctions which he said were serving no purpose at all.
“It would be an act of goodwill if Britain would now move towards removing the sanctions it imposed on us and it will be very good if Britain would also urge America to lift the sanctions.
SADC has identified several key intervention areas under its Industrial Development Policy Framework of 2012.
The focus areas include sector-specific strategies for regional value chain development; promoting industrial upgrading through innovation; technology transfer and research and development; improving standards as well as technical regulations and quality infrastructure.
Others include upgrading skills for industrialization; mechanisms for industrial funding; improving infrastructure provision for industrial development and promoting local cross border and foreign direct investment.
The Summit, attended by 13 Heads of State and Government, resolved that industrialization be at the centre of integration efforts.
It also mandated the Ministerial Task Force on Regional Economic Integration to develop a strategy and roadmap for industrialization.
In addition, the leaders directed the expeditious completion of Tripartite Free Trade Area negotiations to pave way for continental Free Trade Areas. FTAs are essentially agreements that remove trade barriers between or among member states.
On food and nutrition security, Summit endorsed the 2015 to 2025 Regional Food and Nutrition Security Strategy that aims to improve sustainable food availability, accessibility and utilization.
The annual gathering also urged member states to put in place effective measures to deal with Ebola in the event of an outbreak in the region.
President Mugabe has taken over leadership of SADC following his election as chairman at the 2013 Summit in Lilongwe, Malawi. He will lead the bloc under the theme: SADC Strategy for Economic Transformation – Leveraging the Region’s Diverse Resources for Sustainable Economic and Social Development through Beneficiation and Value Addition.