His Excellency Dr. Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and Incoming Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on 31 July 2024 officially opened the 7th annual SADC Industrialisation Week (SIW) at Harare International Convention Centre. The 7th SIW started on the 28th July and will come to an end on 5th August 2024.
In his Keynote Address, His Excellency President Dr. Mnangagwa, underscored that this year’s Industrialisation Week amplified the urgent need for SADC Member States to embrace innovation to boast industrial productivity and competitiveness. “Individually or collectively, we have a duty to spur sustainable growth through a sound and diversified industrial base with wide-ranging new products and jobs for our people”, he said.
H.E. President Mnangagwa said to ensure the successful implementation of the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063, SADC Member States must increase investments in technology, innovation, and in research and development. In this regard, he urged Member States to re-purpose their yester-year institutions to make them more relevant for the world of the future.
On the education system in support of the regional industrialisation agenda, H.E. President Dr. Mnangagwa pointed out that, the education systems should be re-purposed to bridge the technology gap and current global trends to enable the SADC region to be more competitive and deliberate, systematic, and surgically focused to graduate from being factor-driven to investment-driven and ultimately, drive knowledge-based economies.
He appealed to the present generation to foster environments and synergies that leapfrog industrialisation, create more jobs, produce value added goods, as well as increase exports and imports earnings, with the view to improve efficiencies in the resource allocation within the region and create the requisite linkages across all sectors of the economies to drive the industrialisation agenda.
H.E. Mr. Elias M. Magosi, SADC Executive Secretary highlighted that the SIW offers an opportunity for stakeholders to interact and share experiences on how best to deliver industrialisation and structural transformation to the region's economies. H.E. Magosi said this year's theme, “Promoting innovation to unlock opportunities for Sustainable Economic Growth, and Development towards an Industrialised SADC’’, highlights the importance of innovation in the industrialisation field as defined in the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2020-2030 (RISDP), and the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap. 2015-2063. The Executive Secretary outlined that Pillar I of the RISDP focuses on Industrial Development and Market Integration by leveraging science, technology, and innovation to unlock and exploit the region’s industrial potential.
He urged Member States to develop policies and regulations that truly drive industrialisation and to focus on the creation of and support to market access for those businesses and industries pursuing and leading the industrialisation effort within the region.
H.E. Magosi expressed his gratitude to H.E President Dr. Mnangagwa for honouring the invitation to officially open the 7th SIW. He described it as a clear testament of the President’s dedication, commitment, and immense value that he attaches to the SADC Industrialisation agenda.
The 7th SADC Industrialisation Week provided a platform for SADC Member States, the Private Sector, International Partners, Policymakers, Researchers, SMEs, Financial Institutions, and Civil Society to share experiences on driving industrialisation and economic transformation agenda for the region.
