The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies held the meeting with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana. Minister Davies was representing the chair of SADC (President Jacob Zuma) to discuss the development of Implementation Plan of the SADC Industrialisation Strategy which falls under the mandate of the Ministerial Task Force on Regional Economic Integration.

This follows the SADC Summit’s adoption of SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap in April 2015, in Zimbabwe and the costed action plan in March 2017, in Swaziland. The implementation plan seeks to identify projects and programmes to develop regional value chains that not only promote industrial development but integration in the region. The regional value chains are to be pursued in the SADC prioritised sectors namely, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals and mineral beneficiation.

The meeting agreed on the framework to guide the development of the implementation plan and selection of regional projects that will be key to driving the industrialisation agenda in SADC. The envisaged plan is to be considered by the SADC Ministers in March 2018. As the current chair of SADC, South Africa will ensure that this deliverable is realised on the agreed timeframes with the Secretariat.