SOUTH AFRICA- On Thursday, 27th of July, the Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa has called to invite members of the media to the 2nd Southern African Development Community (SADC) Industrialization Week that will be hosted by South Africa under the theme “Partnering with the Private Sector in Developing Industry and Regional Value Chains”
According to a press release sponsoring the invite, the week is to commence on the 4th of July, and span for five days. It is reportedly stated to end on the 4th of August, at Sunninghill, Johannesburg.
It should be recalled that at an extra-ordinary Summit held in April 2015, Zimbabwe, the SADC Heads of State and Government adopted the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap 2015 – 2063. The Summit also directed the SADC Secretariat to develop a detailed and costed Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy, and to design and develop an appropriate institutional framework to implement the Strategy.
At the center of SADC’s industrialization efforts, it is reported that the Strategy and Roadmap sets out three potential growth paths, namely agro-processing; mineral benefit and downstream processing value chains. The paths are mutually supporting and inclusive, encompassing the combination of downstream value addition and backward integration of the upstream provision of inputs, intermediate items and capital goods.
From reports gathered, the Action Plan was adopted by an extra-ordinary summit in Swaziland in March 2017. It also took a decision urging member states to popularize the SADC industrialization program at national level, a key component of which is the annual Industrialization Week.
As part of the popularization of the strategy and roadmap, SADC secretariat partnered with the Southern Africa Business Forum (SABF) to organize and celebrate the industrialization week. The event will therefore create a platform for engagement between the public and private sectors on the implementation of the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Action Plan.
South Africa takes over the chairship of SADC after the 37th Ordinary SADC Summit which will take place in Pretoria from 10-20 August 2017 and is expected to drive the implementation of the industrialization action plan during this period.
Correspondent: Ridwan A Olayiwola
