Build on SADC meetings to accelerate economic transformation
Government and the private sector should build on and utilize Zimbabwe’s historic accomplishment of hosting the SADC Industrial Week and the Summit of Heads of State and Government this month to accelerate and transform the country’s faltering economy.
Building more infrastructure and opening up new channels for investment and commerce inside Africa can both help Southern Africa industrialize and undergo economic transformation.
This has already resulted in enormous infrastructural development in Harare, including the construction of new luxury and executive housing projects, the restoration of existing roads, hotel renovations, and the construction of a convention centre near the summit site, the New Parliament, on Mount Hampden.
Officially opening the SADC Industrialisation Week yesterday in the capital Harare, President Mnangagwa underscored the necessity of structural transformation and the need for their institutions to be strengthened in order to support the implementation of prudent policy measures and strategic interventions.
Many SADC economies have been heavily dependent on traditional, low-productivity sectors like agriculture or SMEs sector for growth and employment due to poor structural reform.
President Mnangagwa said the SADC countries should accelerate the domestication of regional value chains.
According to him, national development strategies must align with the broader development agenda.
“Our SADC region has immense potential to accelerate the structural transformation of our economies, anchored on increased production and productivity. It is critically important, therefore, to scale up the domestication of regional value chains towards our entry into global value chains,” President Mnangagwa said.
He added: “The present generation has a duty and obligation to foster environments and synergies that leapfrog industrialisation, create more jobs, produce value added goods, as well as increase exports and export earnings. Equally, we must improve efficiencies in our resource allocation and create the requisite linkages across all sectors of our economies to drive this noble and urgent agenda.
“For the SADC region to propel the industrialisation initiative, we cannot work in silos, both in terms of in-country and cross border cooperation.
“Hence, by and large, there is a need for our national development strategies to be in sync with the broader development agenda.