Africa-Press – Angola. Angola will assume, in August this year, the rotating presidency of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), replacing the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is currently at the head of the sub-regional organization created in 1992.
The country will receive the testimony to lead the fate of the organization, until August 2024, during the next summit of Heads of State and Government, to be held in August of this year.
As part of the preparations for this summit, a delegation from the SADC Secretariat, led by the Deputy Executive Secretary for Institutional Affairs, Ambassador Joseph Nourrice, traveled last Friday to Luanda to present the directives regarding the obligations to be that the host country has, with regard to hosting the summit sessions during the term of its presidency.
According to a note released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MIREX), on the subject, this interaction between the two delegations also aimed to give the host country (Angola) an indication of the budgetary needs to be incurred by it during the one year period.
“The delegation of the SADC Executive Secretariat heard the announcement of the existence of an interministerial commission responsible for carrying out all steps for the organization and holding of the SADC summit, created by His Excellency João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, President of the Republic, through Decree No. 237, of 12/08/2022”, reads in the note.
The document adds that the MIREX delegation pledged to collaborate closely with the SADC Secretariat in carrying out the events in the portfolio and in others that may be necessary during Angola’s mandate at the head of the organization of the Southern Region of the African continent.
The Angolan delegation present at this meeting, held at the headquarters of the Angolan diplomacy, in Mutamba, was attended by the director of the National Committee of SADC, ambassador Nazaré Salvador, by the director of the Directorate America, Felisberto Martins, representing the Secretary of State for MIREX Administration, Finance and Heritage, Maria Auxiliadora Ramiro.
Industrialization of the region by 2063
One of SADC’s major objectives is to make the region industrialized by 2063, as set out in the organization’s Strategy and Roadmap, approved by the Heads of State and Government, in April 2015, for the period 2015-2063.
The Strategy aims to achieve a structural transformation of the SADC region through industrialization, modernization and upgrading of production systems and deeper regional integration, complementing the region’s natural resources, especially in the agricultural and extractive industry sectors, in order to of accelerating the industrialization process through the beneficiation of ores and the addition of value.
It also intends to give priority to three mutually compatible growth paths, namely the processing of agricultural products, the beneficiation of ores and downstream processing and greater participation in value chains at national, regional and global levels, to achieve substantial quantitative changes in domains of industrial structure, industrial production and exports, thus drawing particular attention to medium and high technology categories, at the same time doubling industrial employment.
The strategy’s ultimate objective is to promote sustainable economic growth and development, which ultimately contribute to the alleviation and eradication of poverty and the creation of better living conditions for the region’s citizens.
With this, continues the Strategy, SADC wants to raise the region’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate from 4 percent per year to a minimum of 7 percent, double the percentage of value added by manufacturing industry, including the share of industry-related services in GDP to 30 percent by 2030 and raise it to 40 percent by 2050, as well as increasing exports of manufactured goods to at least 50 percent of total exports until 2030, compared to the figure below 20 percent currently recorded.
The Strategy also aims to increase participation in the world market for the export of intermediate products to levels of around 60 percent of total exports of manufactured products registered in East Asia and to raise the percentage of jobs in the manufacturing sector to 40 percent of total jobs by 2030.
Significant advances
According to the SADC Strategy and Roadmap for Industrialization, the organization’s Member States have made significant progress in terms of liberalizing trade under the SADC Protocol on Trade, while trade has seen a considerable increase following the launch of the SADC SADC Free Trade Area (FTA) in 2008.
However, that document states, trade flows did not reveal an equitable distribution among Member States, while the value of intra-SADC trade remained relatively low, ie 17 per cent of total SADC trade.
According to the Strategy, this happened because most Member States do not have the capacity to produce diversified goods and services with added value, capable of being commercialized in a competitive manner.
To overcome these challenges, the Strategy seeks to create a favorable environment for trade and industrialization, through, among other means, overcoming macroeconomic difficulties, promoting deeper regional integration and removing unavoidable constraints linked to infrastructure, skills and funding.
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