Africa-Press – Angola. Political analyst Bernardino Neto considered this Wednesday, in Luanda, that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) could gain new vigor with the Angolan Presidency, fundamentally in the economic domain.
Regarding the organization’s 43rd Summit of Heads of State and Government, taking place in Luanda, from the 7th to the 17th of this month, he referred that the country’s leadership will constitute an element of great “preponderance” for SADC .
The specialist understands that, with the Angolan Presidency, regional and African trade can be capitalized, and therefore it is necessary that the member states, particularly Angola, materialize the priority of industrialization and investment in human capital.
According to the source, to materialize the desideratum of industrialization, the countries of the region will have to make investments in two elements: in man and in infrastructures.
He recalled that the priority of the SADC structuring document is industrialization, a sector in which South Africa is well developed, as a result of its strategy of building infrastructures for the transformation and export of minerals.
Bernardino Neto added that SADC has an Industrialization Roadmap up to the year 2050, which essentially aims to facilitate the creation of so-called value chains in the economies of the 16 Member States, aimed mainly at agribusiness.
The document also aims to allow the continuation of the mining process in South Africa, in order to expand the trade in mines throughout the region, he said.
The specialist understands that another important factor for regional industrialization is to boost the tourism sector, as a way of diversifying local economies.
In view of this situation, he stated that Angola, upon assuming the rotating Presidency of SADC, “must have a badge”, that is, join, by 2024, the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in the region, after more than a decade of waiting .
He recognized, however, that it is a difficult and complex process, in which the business class and the private sector must be robust, for the country to be able to exchange products from the largest economy in the region, South Africa.
“In order to industrialize, we need to invest in the economy, which is a priority in the National Development Plan, projected by the Government for 2023-2027, which brings human capital, coinciding with the Summit motto”, he said.
The analyst also referred that the Presidency of Angola will have to focus on human capital, especially young people, and on the revision of the Indicative Strategic Plan for Regional Development.
He recalled, on the other hand, that Africa, as a whole, participates in world trade with only three percent, that is, two (2) trillion and 900 billion dollars, of which 700 billion dollars come from the region of Southern Africa, SADC.
Depending on the source, all other values are covered by other sub-regional blocs such as ECOWAS, ECCAS, EAC, COMESA, IGAD and CILSS.
“Within this mesh of sub-regional blocks, I can say that SADC is the engine of regional integration”, concluded the analyst.
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