AU lays ground for industrialisation summit in November in Niger
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The African Union (AU) is planning to hold a special summit of heads of state and government on Africa’s industrialisation agenda in November 2020 in Niger, an official source said here Monday.
AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry Albert Muchanga said the summit would play a key role in helping to re-launch the industrialisation process in Africa ahead of the formal launch of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in January 2021.
The AU billed 1 July 2020 as the launch date of the AfCFTA but the process was delayed by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, which forced the postponement of several international meetings.
The UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa are working jointly to co-host the summit, which is expected to generate measures to revitalize the industrialisation efforts in Africa, Muchanga said.,
“We are going to come up with the measures to re-boost industrialisation. The AU will invite President of Niger, President Mohammadu Issoufou, to champion the industrialisation agenda. We need large market spaces for Africa to create the room for industrialisation,” Muchanga said.
Speaking during a meeting convened by the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), renamed the AU Development Agency, Muchanga said African countries were ripe for the launching of a major industrialisation agenda, but only if the continent invested in original made in Africa brands.
“We have been depending on original equipment manufacturing. These manufacturers from around the world are moving in search of regions where they can find cheap labour.
“For Africa, this is not a sustainable model of industrialisation because we in Africa do not own the intellectual property rights for these technologies used to produce these manufactured equipment,” Muchanga said.
The AU official addressed the AU Integration Day 2020 seminar convened to refocus talks on the strategies required to revitalize national wealth job creation plans.
He said it was only through the manufacturing of original made-in-Africa products that a continental industrialisation policy would succeed.
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the African Development Agency, Ibrahim Mayaki, has called for a single African industrialisation policy.
Mayaki said it was impossible for countries to industrialise using 55 different industrialisation policies while operating in a single market environment under the AfCFTA.
He said industrialisation plans should focus on improving the participation of countries at national, regional and continental levels as opposed to promoting national economic and industrial development.
He said countries required to undertake more stringent reforms of their laws and to create the right national institutions for trade and industrialisation efforts to take root in Africa.
The NEPAD chief said the African labour market was producing 20 million people aged 18-25 years who required jobs to sustain themselves in the labour market, which justified the need for continental policies.
-0- PANA AO/RA 6Jul2020
