{"id":13256,"date":"2024-08-01T15:33:07","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T11:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gbc1.net\/?p=13256"},"modified":"2025-08-25T20:14:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T16:14:34","slug":"7th-sadc-industrialization-week-2024-promotes-lva-and-afcfta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gbc1.net\/index.php\/2024\/08\/01\/7th-sadc-industrialization-week-2024-promotes-lva-and-afcfta\/","title":{"rendered":"7th SADC Industrialization Week 2024 Promotes LVA and AfCFTA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 7th SADC Industrialization Week (#SIW2024<\/a>) kicked off in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Sunday 28 July 2024. The theme of for this edition was “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustainable Economic Growth and Development Towards an Industrialized SADC<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first SADC Industrialization Week was held on the sidelines of the 36th SADC Summit in Eswatini in 2016. Then, it took place on a yearly basis with the exceptions of 2020 and 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event gathered some 1,350 delegates from the 16 member states of SADC, and even beyond. More than 350 exhibitors have also booked stands at the #SIW2024<\/a>. The Industrialization Week precedes the 44th Ordinary SADC Heads of State and Government Summit scheduled for 17 August 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this 7th edition, the Industrialization Week is organized by the SADC Secretariat, in collaboration with the government of Zimbabwe, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) , and the SADC Business Council.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Opening
Opening Ceremony of 7th SADC Industrialization Week 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In his welcome address, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa urged for the fostering Local Value Addition (#LVA<\/a>) and the unlocking of innovative financing models for the successful industrialization within the bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that regard, he called for the urgent and effective operationalization of the SADC Regional Development Fund and to leverage national pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and other public-private partnership (#PPP<\/a>) frameworks to advance the industrialization agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He deplored the prevailing export of unprocessed ores and low value-added goods by SADC. Modernization and industrialization of the economies is thus a sine qua non<\/em> condition in order to ‘leave no one and no place behind’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“Given the vast natural resource endowments and youthful population on our Africa continent, and the SADC region in particular, it is a misnomer that we continue to lose substantial revenues through exporting unprocessed goods.”<\/p>\nZimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

During a press conference, Zimbabwean Minister of Information Muswere stated that the objective of the Industrialization Week is to highlight investment opportunities and provide a networking platform in various industrial sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ‘SADC Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap<\/em>‘ is a blueprint which provides guidelines on how the regional economic community can hack an upgrade path up the Global Value Chain (#GVC<\/a>) as markets are opening and unifying under the #AfCFTA<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n