Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Elias Mpedi Magosi defended a serious engagement in the industrialisation of this African region.
The official made the call at the opening ceremony of the 43rd SADC Summit of the Heads of State and Government held Thursday in Luanda.
The official proposed the commitment in the framework of development of mineral processing and pharmaceutical value chains to the benefit of local populations.
He pointed to the need to take advantage of the potential of mineral resources, with a view to meeting the needs of communities in the region.
“Our intervention strategy seeks to limit the import of processed goods, while reducing the import of raw materials, through industrialisation, strengthening competitiveness and regional integration with structural transformation and the increase in the manufacture of goods and exports”, he asserted.
Elias Mpedi Magosi said there is a portfolio of 20 projects in the mineral value chains ready to develop and add value, as well as create jobs and reduce poverty.
However, he appealed to the international cooperation partners and the private sector to help in the implementation of these projects aimed to improve the living standards of SADC citizens and in line with the organisation’s goals.
Elias Magosi also spoke of the need to speed up the integration, industrialisation and facilitate access to markets in the region and beyond, in addition to overcoming the bottlenecks that blocks regional integration.
In another sense, he recognised that peace, security and political stability are essential for socio-economic development and for regional integration, with interventions that are based on collective responses to the sovereignty of States.
Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)