The Deputy Ambassador of South Africa to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Mr Andrew Maswanganye says South Africa and the DRC need to put more focus on their industrialisation efforts in order to achieve the goal of eradicating unemployment, inequality and poverty as set out in their respective 2030 visions. Maswanganye was speaking at a Trade and Investment Seminar that was hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) in Kinshasa yesterday, as part of the Investment and Trade Initiative (ITI) to the DRC.

“South Africa and the DRC need to do more to improve cooperation in the field of economic development in order to achieve their shared vision of 2030 where unemployment, poverty and inequality will be forgotten nightmares.  This calls for a greater need to industrialise our economies by utilising the natural and ecological resources, skills, technologies, and other development partnerships that we have. The economic report on Africa 2014 which was released by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) says that industrialisation is key for Africa to foster structural transformation and improve in standards of living. Yet industrialisation has remained elusive with an embryonic manufacturing sector, low productivity and marginal participation in domestic and international market,” said Maswanganye quoting the UNECA report.

He said the report also indicated that while services have surpassed the agricultural industry as the leading income generators across Africa, this has not created quality and quantity of jobs likely to result from manufacturing, labour-intensive production. Industrialisation is thus a pre-condition for Africa to achieve its economic growth.

He explained that this was the reason why the 34th Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government that took place in Zimbabwe last month,   mandated the Ministerial Task Force on Regional Economic Integration to develop a strategy and a road map on industrialisation in the region. This, said Maswanganye, showed the importance of this critical intervention.

“The DRC government has prioritised industrialisation as the most important intervention to help put this country on the path to sustainable inclusive economic development. Development programmes that have been identified and shared with the SA government include the development of the Grand Inga Hydro Power complex which has the potential to be the hub of the DRC power generation industry, and which if fully exploited, can supply energy to as many as five million households across Africa,” he added.

Maswanganye expressed optimism that the redevelopment of the Congolese agriculture and agro-processing capacity through agro-industrial parks would help restore the significance of agriculture to its 1966 status when it used to account for the largest share of the country’s GDP.

“There is also the modernisation of the service sector by improving the regulatory climate and strengthening institutions of corporate governance, especially in areas such as ICT, financial services, retail and tourism in the DRC. This is where SA and DRC companies can partner in order to take advantage of these opportunities," he said, adding that there was also a significant improvement in the transformation of the legal institutional framework governing the mining industry in the DRC.

Maswanganye added that the businesspeople from SA and the DRC attending seminar were faced with a massive number of opportunities that they could work together on and take advantage of in order to contribute to the industrialisation of the two countries.

Issued by: The Department of Trade and Industry