SUB-REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON IMPROVING INDUSTRIAL PERFORMANCE AND PROMOTING EMPLOYMENT IN THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPME

1. SUB-REGIONAL CONFERENCE ON IMPROVING INDUSTRIAL PERFORMANCE AND PROMOTING EMPLOYMENT IN THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY GALLAGHER ESTATES, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA 6-8 DECEMBER 2006 Expected Outcomes Chowa J. Chanda

2. Vision an integrated industrial sub-regional economy with internationally competitive and environmentally sound industries capable of promoting sustainable human development

3. Overall Goals • promote industrial efficiency and global competitiveness, industrial expansion and the creation of employment within the SADC region; • develop an integrated industrial base within SADC based on available resources and being internationally competitive; • achieve increased levels of production of value-added goods within a common SADC regional market; and • generate wealth for the people of the region on a sustained basis.

4. Reviews • 1989 SADC Industrial Development Strategy • 1996 CMI Review of Industrial Development Strategy • 2002 CMI SADC Industrial Development Strategy • 2003 CMI SADC Industrial Development Strategy • CAMI process • APCI adopted 2003

5. Issues • Polarisation • Industrial Investment Potential • Effectiveness or weakness of the current National Industrial Policies and Strategies • Legal framework and implementation mechanism • Review and adjustment mechanisms for policy and strategies

6. Industry Categories • Agro food processing • Fisheries • Forestry • Textiles and Garments • Leather and Leather Products • Processing of Minerals and Metallic and Non-metallic product • Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals • Machinery and Equipment • Services

7. Polarisation • Improvement of infrastructure that enable and support strengthened production and trade, • Establishment of a regional development fund for industrialization, • An in-depth study of the issue (including analysing comparative advantages at the national level) to address polarization, • Harmonization of incentive regimes and policies, • Create intra regional business linkages (at national and regional levels) in SADC, • Eliminate non-tariff barriers to industrial production and growth, • Facilitate and promote cross-border investment • Improve technical skills in the industrial and trade sector.

8. Industrial Investment Potential • Improve tax regime, • Identify and address constraints including the problem of HIV/AIDS, and • Make corresponding efforts at regional level to encourage the process.

9. National Industrial Policies and Strategies • Restructuring of industrial sector to ensure turnaround, • Develop and strengthen industrial policies so that they are facilitative to industrialization, • Promote and facilitate access to appropriate technology to promote transformation, • Establish effective financial infrastructure for industrial development.

10. Legal Framework and Implementation Mechanisms • Develop and implement a SADC MoU for regional industrial development co-operation, particularly in the areas of vast potential, • Establish specific regional mechanisms and contact points for industrial development at regional and national levels, which should be separate from trade.

11. Targets and Time Frame • The targets and time frame should be aligned RISDP • Private sector participation in policy making Develop an integrated industrial development programme for SADC with linkage across-borders and with all economic sectors,

12. Special Emphasis • Harmonise policies to achieve policy convergence, • Devise appropriate measures to attract citizens back to the member states to reverse brain drain as an option of building capacity, • Endorsed the ongoing establishment of a regional development fund to support the industrial development, • The SADC Industrial Development Policy should be formulated as an MoU, • Benchmark progress within a ten-year time frame but with regular reviews after every two years.

13. Objectives • … facilitating implementation of APCI, using the value chain approach as a means of identifying a workable strategy to improve industrial performance in Southern Africa. • … highlight the importance of the private sector and non-State actors in the industrial development process. • … to improve the overall business and investment climate and achieve convergence on selected macro-economic indicators • … to enhance industrial competitiveness and diversify SADC economies by promoting intra-regional trade, productive investment and technology cooperation • …

14. Discussion Themes • Concrete proposals on increasing and facilitating trade in the priority sectors • Role, commitment and contribution of the private and public sector to the development of the priority sectors • Identifying and developing strategies for funds mobilization and investment as an input to the flexible African Productive Capacity Facility for Southern Africa.

15. Outcomes • Regional Action Plans; Regional Industrial Policy and Strategies; Regional Industrial Cooperation Framework • Recommend direct support to selected sectoral bodies (Centres of Excellence) in support of the development of priority industrial sectors. This should be characterized by regional coverage and willingness to develop the regional capability formation and absorption capacities, including establishment/attracting engineering firms through partnership agreements; • Recommend transformation of existing Public Private Partnership bodies into a Competitiveness Observatory for Productive Capacity and Employment (COPCE) for the sub region; • A clear commitment of both Public and Private Stakeholders to support the Southern.

16. Way Forward • Recommendations to Ministers responsible for Industry

17. THANK YOU