Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretary Elias Magosi has called on the region to stop exporting raw minerals and instead focus on beneficiation, value addition, manufacturing and industrialisation to create jobs and wealth.
Magosi made the call at the 46th SADC Summit of Heads of State and Government in Durban, South Africa, on Monday.
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is also in attendance with her counterpart, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.
Magosi said SADC is rich in critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt, graphite, manganese, copper, rare earth elements and platinum group metals, which are essential to future industries.
“Our ambition must be to move beyond the export of raw materials and position SADC as a globally competitive centre for beneficiation, value addition, manufacturing, innovation, and industrialisation,” Magosi said.
He said SADC knows the potential of its resources and has made commitments to change the economic trajectory, but must now act.
“The challenge is when do we stop exporting them in raw form and start adding value to them and creating sustainable jobs and wealth. Once more, we do not need permission from anyone to start this process. Let us start now,” Magosi said.
He said industrialisation is key to economic diversification, job creation, poverty reduction and improved living standards.
He said this requires reliable infrastructure, including sustainable energy systems, transport networks, ports, logistics platforms and affordable digital connectivity.
Magosi urged SADC countries to strengthen regional cooperation, saying countries could no longer depend on others and must increasingly rely on each other.
He believes their strength lies in working together, trading together, investing together, and building together.
The summit is being held under the theme: ‘Resilient, Sustainable and Inclusive Industrialisation through Infrastructure Development, Agricultural and Critical Minerals Transformation in Pursuit of a Just World’.
Magosi said the region, with about 382 million people and a combined gross domestic product exceeding US$847 billion (about N$13.8 trillion), has the potential to build a stronger and more prosperous SADC.
