Andrew
Business Reporter
THE Africa Industrialisation and Trade Advisory, (AITA) of South Africa will in October this year hold the Africa Industrialisation and Trade Summit 2022 that seeks to address the continent’s slow pace of economic growth in the face of Covid-19 pandemic, which has continues to negatively impact lives and economies.
This year’s event, which will take place at the Radisson Blu Hotel; Sandton in Johannesburg will be hosted for three days from the 24th to the 26th of October 2022.
According to AITA, the stuttering Covid-19 medicines manufacturing and production in African countries and the low export of manufactured products and lack of participation in the Global Value Chains (GVCs) has continued to expose the weaknesses, loopholes and the inadequacies in the African industrial and trade policies, infrastructure, superstructure and value chain systems.
It said that as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a devastating effect on lives and economies; Africa was increasingly re-looking at its industrial and trade policy design, architecture, historical experiences, frameworks, instruments and implementation road-map.
“Notwithstanding the above, Africa is lagging behind in the uptake of structural transformation, adoption and use of modern industrial and trade policies design, technological and scientific know-how,” AITA said.
It added, “the unsatisfactory rates of productive transformation and shortfalls in Sub-Saharan Africa in generating quality jobs in manufacturing or modern services is creating calls for the demand for proactive government policies to diversity and upgrade economies beyond simply freeing up markets.”
Zimbabwe on its part has the Zimbabwe National Industrial Development Policy (2019-2023), which is a blueprint for industrialisation which derives from Vision 2030, and is tailored to assist the economy to achieve growth.
The policy is premised upon the deliberate decision taken by the Government to open the country for business, modernise, industrialize and promote investment, with the ultimate goal attaining broad based economic empowerment, inclusive economic growth and employment creation.
Zimbabwe’s economy, like the rest of the Global economies, was not spared by the effects of the Covid-19 as the country also endured periods of shutdown while global supplies and travel restrictions impacted economic activity.
According to AITA, the agenda for the Trade Summit 2022, also seeks to address high unemployment rates, uneven wealth and income distribution, un-adaptive economic structures, the unfavourable terms of trade and the unresponsive financial institutions through the selection and implementing of the correct choices of industrial and trade policies that are sustainable, competitive, fit for purpose and deliver better economic growth outcomes.
“The Agenda for Africa Industrialisation and Trade Summit is the mecca and annual prestigious international conference gathering of both African government officials and private sector stakeholders.
“The agenda for Africa Industrialisation and Trade 2022 Summit is unique in the sense that it will be the first event to be hosted post Covid-19 and it is anticipated that the event will be celebratory in tone, larger in scale and have an intrinsic appeal to capture media, stakeholder attention and participation, reflecting an ever-establishing and challenging micro and macro economies locally, regionally and globally.”
AITA said that the industrial debate audience has also grown over the years and particularly in 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic and the shrinking share of the African contribution to the world economy and international trade.
For Zimbabwe to achieve real economic transformation, the implementation of the Zimbabwe National Industrial Development Policy (2019-2023) is centred on developing linkages across key sectors of the economy namely, agriculture, mining, manufacturing and services.
Value addition and beneficiation will remain the main anchors of the industrialisation strategy, particularly so, where options to add value to local raw materials are readily available.
Zimbabwe will also adopt a global value chain approach and therefore participate in regional and global supply chains as it endeavours to attain industrialisation objectives.
Various policies and strategies have been adopted to spur Zimbabwe’s industrialisation in the short-to medium term.
These include, improving the business operating environment, the mobilisation of funding for industrial development, support for the agricultural and mining sectors, enhancement of research and development, skills transfer as well as infrastructure development.
The Zimbabwe National Industrial Development Policy is aligned to the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (October 2018 —December 2020) TSP, which prioritizes the stimulation of economic growth and creation of employment.
Online Reporter