Africa-Press – Seychelles. The Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Elias Magosi, declared this Thursday that the organization has a portfolio of 20 projects with added value for the export of mineral resources, within the framework of the creation of jobs and poverty reduction.
Elias Magosi was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 43rd SADC Summit, whose motto is centered on sustainable industrialization and the inclusive development of the regional community, having human and financial capital as its basic pillar.
The Executive Secretary of SADC, on the occasion, invited international cooperation partners and the private sector to join this initiative by SADC and member countries.
With a current GDP estimated at US$720 billion and an estimated population of 360 million inhabitants (75% young), this African economic bloc already has 20 defined mineral resource projects linked to the value chain, noted the official. .
Before the Heads of State and Government present at the major event, Elias Magosi stressed that the regional region has priorities that affect, fundamentally, the agro-processing of mineral resources to value chains, such as in the pharmaceutical sector, to boost the sector for the benefit of population.
“We cannot continue to lose the benefits of the walking resources with which our region is blessed, such as oil and mineral resources, continuing to export our raw materials without added value, benefiting other economies”, he defended.
He added that to overcome this trend, SADC’s strategy is to limit the import of processed goods and, at the same time, reduce the export of raw materials.
He made it known that the organization intends, in this way, to import more industrial equipment to strengthen regional integration through structural transformation and increase the manufacture of goods and services.
Headquartered in Gaborone (Botswana), 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.
Created in August 1992, SADC is made up of Angola, South Africa Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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