President Mugabe Delivers on SADC Vision
August 14, 2015
Political Editor
Zimbabwe Herald
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, Botswana’s second President, Dr Quett Ketumile Masire, was re-elected as the chairman of the then Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) for the following three years.
(The same summit also re-appointed Zimbabwean Simba Makoni as Executive Secretary for a term of three years.)
The year 1990 marked the 10th anniversary of Sadcc and the summit saw the establishment of Botswana as the headquarters of the region.
Perhaps what is most important about 1990 is Masire’s resonance of today’s message.
Speaking at the official opening of Sadcc’s new home in Gaborone, Dr Masire said states must accelerate industrial development in the region to realise full benefits from an abundance of under-used natural resources.
He said the region was endowed with a variety of natural resources now marketed as commodities or semi-manufactured, denying the region the benefits of value added products.
“We must therefore strive to create the necessary processing capacities within our region, wherever economic means permit so that we can export these minerals in a processed form.”
President Masire said the region needed the skills and the entrepreneurship to improve productivity and efficiency of investment.
“For this to be realised we need to create an environment conducive for investment, both for the regional and foreign investor.”
It was noted at the time that, for this to happen, fundamental economic and political reforms were necessary to provide greater participation of the people in national economic and political life, acting in their own interests.
Internally, the region’s economic policies and management systems had not always taken into account the need to ensure efficiency in resource allocation, and prudence in management and use.
Interestingly, when outgoing chairman of Sadc, President Mugabe took the reins last year, he made a clarion call for the industrialisation of the region as well as calling for value addition and beneficiation of natural resources, which abound in the region.
President Mugabe has also taken this call to the African Union where he is also the incumbent chairman, making his philosophy unparalleled in recent times.
In a few days’ time President Mugabe will be handing over the chair to Botswana’s Ian Khama and hopes are that the tone that President Mugabe set will be taken up by his successor.
For the incoming chair, there is a lot of symbolism in this instructiveness.
Significance
According to literature from the regional body, the importance of industrialisation has been captured in the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (2003-2018), which among others, initially advocated the diversification of the industrial structure and exports with more emphasis on value-addition across all sectors by 2015.
Sadc lined up a number of initiatives that have been put in place with the aim to enhance the competitiveness of existing industrial capacity and promote the development of regional value chains in selected sectors across the region, including through upgrading existing manufacturing capacities, modernising productive facilities, reinforcing the institutional support infrastructure, and strengthening the region’s capacities for research and innovation.
Cognisant of this, President Mugabe convened an extraordinary summit on industrialisation in April this year. Sadc leaders approved the Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap.
The roadmap is anchored on three pillars: Industrialisation, Competitiveness and Regional Integration.
The strategy, whose drafting was spearheaded by a team of regional and national consultants appointed by the Sadc Secretariat, covers the period 2015-2063, and aims to provide the framework for major economic and technological transformations at the national and regional levels within the context of deepening regional integration.
President Mugabe said he was confident that the strategy, if implemented effectively, “has the potential of unlocking opportunities beyond our borders, leading to sustained economic growth and development.”
Executive Secretary of Sadc Stergomena Lawrence Tax expressed the same optimism saying: “We look forward to continued commitment by member states in the creation of an enabling environment, including the provision of the necessary resources and capacities as critical success factors for the implementation of our strategy.”
It is now left for the next Sadc chair to push this vision forward.
Political Editor
Zimbabwe Herald
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, Botswana’s second President, Dr Quett Ketumile Masire, was re-elected as the chairman of the then Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) for the following three years.
(The same summit also re-appointed Zimbabwean Simba Makoni as Executive Secretary for a term of three years.)
The year 1990 marked the 10th anniversary of Sadcc and the summit saw the establishment of Botswana as the headquarters of the region.
Perhaps what is most important about 1990 is Masire’s resonance of today’s message.
Speaking at the official opening of Sadcc’s new home in Gaborone, Dr Masire said states must accelerate industrial development in the region to realise full benefits from an abundance of under-used natural resources.
He said the region was endowed with a variety of natural resources now marketed as commodities or semi-manufactured, denying the region the benefits of value added products.
“We must therefore strive to create the necessary processing capacities within our region, wherever economic means permit so that we can export these minerals in a processed form.”
President Masire said the region needed the skills and the entrepreneurship to improve productivity and efficiency of investment.
“For this to be realised we need to create an environment conducive for investment, both for the regional and foreign investor.”
It was noted at the time that, for this to happen, fundamental economic and political reforms were necessary to provide greater participation of the people in national economic and political life, acting in their own interests.
Internally, the region’s economic policies and management systems had not always taken into account the need to ensure efficiency in resource allocation, and prudence in management and use.
Interestingly, when outgoing chairman of Sadc, President Mugabe took the reins last year, he made a clarion call for the industrialisation of the region as well as calling for value addition and beneficiation of natural resources, which abound in the region.
President Mugabe has also taken this call to the African Union where he is also the incumbent chairman, making his philosophy unparalleled in recent times.
In a few days’ time President Mugabe will be handing over the chair to Botswana’s Ian Khama and hopes are that the tone that President Mugabe set will be taken up by his successor.
For the incoming chair, there is a lot of symbolism in this instructiveness.
Significance
According to literature from the regional body, the importance of industrialisation has been captured in the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (2003-2018), which among others, initially advocated the diversification of the industrial structure and exports with more emphasis on value-addition across all sectors by 2015.
Sadc lined up a number of initiatives that have been put in place with the aim to enhance the competitiveness of existing industrial capacity and promote the development of regional value chains in selected sectors across the region, including through upgrading existing manufacturing capacities, modernising productive facilities, reinforcing the institutional support infrastructure, and strengthening the region’s capacities for research and innovation.
Cognisant of this, President Mugabe convened an extraordinary summit on industrialisation in April this year. Sadc leaders approved the Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap.
The roadmap is anchored on three pillars: Industrialisation, Competitiveness and Regional Integration.
The strategy, whose drafting was spearheaded by a team of regional and national consultants appointed by the Sadc Secretariat, covers the period 2015-2063, and aims to provide the framework for major economic and technological transformations at the national and regional levels within the context of deepening regional integration.
President Mugabe said he was confident that the strategy, if implemented effectively, “has the potential of unlocking opportunities beyond our borders, leading to sustained economic growth and development.”
Executive Secretary of Sadc Stergomena Lawrence Tax expressed the same optimism saying: “We look forward to continued commitment by member states in the creation of an enabling environment, including the provision of the necessary resources and capacities as critical success factors for the implementation of our strategy.”
It is now left for the next Sadc chair to push this vision forward.
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