SADC courts Botswana Media on Industrialisation Strategy

In an effort to raise media awareness and build partnership on the implementation of the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Road Map, the SADC Secretariat in collaboration with GIZ organized a media awareness workshop with senior media practitioners from different media houses in Botswana.

Acting Director for Industrial Development and Trade(IDT) Dr. Lomkhosi Mkhonta-Gama who represented the SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, said, with proper understanding of the Industrialization Strategy, the media can play an important role in raising awareness about the strategy which was launched in August 2015.

Dr Mkhota-Gama said, through partnership with the media, SADC Secretariat seeks to afford the citizens of the SADC Region the opportunity to contribute to the rolling out of the Regional agendas through efficient and effective communication and information flow.

“At the SADC Secretariat, we consider the Media as a critical stakeholder in moving the industrialization programmes in the SADC region forward. It is with that understanding, that we have organized this workshop to enable you, as decision makers in the newsrooms and media houses fully understand the SADC Industrialization Strategy and Road Map so that you become more knowledgeable and skillful Journalists on stories of Industrialization in SAD,” said Dr Mkhota-Gama.

On his part, the SADC National Media Coordinator for Botswana, Mr. Russ Molosiwa called on the media in Botswana to take interest in issues of SADC industrialisation and regional integration in the SADC region, saying there are a number of developments that citizens in SADC Member States would be interested to know.

One of the participants to the workshop, Ms Onalenna Dube who works as a Senior Reporter at Duma FM radio commended the SADC secretariat for organising the media workshop, saying the it offered her a unique opportunity to better understand the industrialisation agenda of the SADC Region.

“I have heard about the SADC Industrialisation Strategy before, but this was my first time to have a better understanding of the strategy and the various programmes that SADC is undertaking in the roll out of the strategy,” she said.

SADC Industrialization Strategy is anchored on three pillars namely; Industrialization as champion of economic and technological transformation; Competitiveness as an active process to move from comparative advantage to competitive advantage; and regional integration and geography as the context for industrial development and economic prosperity.

SADC Industrialisation Action Plan was adopted by Heads of State and Government at their Summit held in Swaziland in March, 2017 with a call for an improved policy environment for industrial development;enhanced competitiveness through the use of selected industrial policy instruments and increased participation in value chains for regional value addition within and beyond the SADC region.

The Action Plan also seeks to increase capabilities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to participate in industrialization and value chains

The media workshop, attended by journalists from public and private media houses, was organised by the Public Relations Unit and Directorate of Industrial Development and Trade at SADC Secretariat in partnership with the SADC National Media Coordinator in Botswana with support from the “Strengthening the National-Regional Linkages in SADC” (SNRL) programme which is a partnership between SADC and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.