Manufacturers of goods in southern Africa should have unrestricted access to 'local markets' while citizens must support their growth by buying and consuming products made in the region to drive regional aspirations to industrialise.
Noting that charity begins at home, Southern African Development Community (SADC) Executive Secretary, Elias Magosi called on countries in the 16-member regional organisation to open their borders to fellow SADC member states to allow greater intra-regional trade.
"Real and meaningful access to markets is the oxygen these businesses need to survive and also to achieve scale, without it, they will suffocate and perish, which is an outcome we all dread. Charity must begin at home," Magosi said during the official opening of the 7th SADC Industrialisation Week (SIW) in the Zimbabwean capital Harare on 31 July.
According to the SADC Secretariat, intra-SADC regional trade has gone up between 2019 to 2022 from US$60 million to US$83 million, reflecting the positive impact of on-going efforts to simplify trade in the region.
Magosi called on the more than 360 million citizens of SADC to complement efforts by their governments by consuming products manufactured in the region as their contribution towards regional economic development and job creation.
"We must love, buy and consume these products and accept the reality that quality and productivity should be a welcome hurdle and a learning platform at the beginning, rather than using the hurdle to condemn such products and bury such businesses," Magosi said.
Such support from governments and consumers would go a long way in ensuring that "no product will leave the region without value addition," which is the ultimate vision of the industrialisation agenda, he said.
A capacitated regional industry will also be able to take advantage of further opportunities presented by the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTFA). The AfCFTA, whose implementation began in January 2021, seeks to promote trade among African countries against the backdrop of a situation where most African Union member states largely trade outside the continent.
The AfCFTA aims to create a market of 1.2 billion people, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of US$2.5 trillion spread over the 55 African Union member states.
Magosi said innovation was critical to the industrialisation agenda as espoused under Pillar One of the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2020-2030, which leverages on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to unlock industrial development.
This is backed by the SADC Protocol on Science, Technology and Innovation which aims to strengthen cooperation and promote the development, transfer and use of STI in member states.
Magosi said a consolidated report on the protocol concluded in March this year, "shows a decent start to the implementation of the protocol since it came into force seven years ago."
"The report highlights increased awareness in member states especially within governments, regulators, scientists, businesses and the media," he said.
Other protocols put in place to support the industrialisation agenda include the Protocol on Trade in Services which entered into force in January 2022 and the Protocol on Industry which seeks to promote the development of a diversified, innovative and globally competitive regional and national industrial bases to enable the region to achieve inclusive and sustainable industrial development.
Running under the theme, "Promoting innovation to unlock opportunities for sustainable economic growth and development towards an industrialized SADC", the SIW, which is running from 28 July - 2 August, is the biggest annual gathering of the public and private sector in the region.
Participants from southern Africa are coming from Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania and Zambia.
As a show of its impact in building trade relations, interest in the SIW was also drawn from countries outside the region with participation from Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Rwanda.
An exhibition by more than 160 Zimbabwean and regional companies as well as investment agencies from eight SADC countries is being held on the sidelines.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), which co-organised the SIW, said it had "turned out to be the largest ever SADC Industrialisation Week so far".
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The SADC Industrialisation Week is held as a precursor to the SADC Heads of State and Government Summit, and has been held annually since 2016 to popularise and promote implementation of the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063 which was adopted in Harare in April 2015.
The strategy identifies industrial development as central to the diversification of economies, development of productive capacity and the creation of employment and poverty reduction.
Zimbabwe hosts the 44th SADC Summit on 17 August.
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