SUPPLY CHAINS UNDERMINE REGIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH

MBABANE – SADC regional economic growth was expected to contract by about 4.5 per cent this year but it has been undermined by structural frailties exposed by COVID-19.

These include the dangers of narrow commodity dependence and the weaknesses of supply chains. 

These were submissions made by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Director Mluleki Sakhile Dlamini under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade during a consultative meeting of the Bureau of the 25th Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICSOE) of Southern Africa which  took place on August 17, 2020. 

The proceedings of the event were shared in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa website. 

The ICSOE is a United Nations (UN) General Assembly policy sub-organ of the UN Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development established to provide a Forum for engaging member States’ senior policy makers and experts on policy and programme-related matters in each of the five sub regions of Africa. 

It is an integral part of ECA’s governance machinery and meets annually to consider, provide guidance and endorse the overall formulation and implementation of the Sub Regional Office (SRO’s) programme of work.

The meeting was opened by Dlamini, who was representing the Kingdom of Eswatini, Chair of the Bureau. 

Opportunity

He said that the meeting was a great opportunity for the bureau, Southern African Development Community (SADC) , the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the secretariat to review progress in the implementation of the approved work programme, introspect on the technical support to member States and regional economic communities and reflect more intensely on emerging regional challenges and opportunities.

Dlamini highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic and industrialisation as being major issues providing a framework for supporting development in Southern Africa. “The pandemic had derailed planned development programmes and exposed structural frailties of the Southern African region, “including the dangers of narrow commodity dependence and the weaknesses of supply chains and this will invariably undermine regional economic growth which was expected to contract by about 4.5 per cent this year,” he said. 

The consultative meeting was attended by members of the Bureau of the 25th ICSOE of Southern Africa; Eswatini (Chair), Lesotho (Vice Chair) and Malawi (Rapporteur), representatives of the SADC and COMESA and staff of the Sub-Region Office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA).

Progress

In his welcoming remarks, SRO-SA Officer in Charge, Sizo Mhlanga also placed emphasis on progress made by the office in delivering support to member States and other stakeholders despite the COVID-19 challenges. He noted that the pandemic had widened the challenges confronting member States and thus the demand for support had increased.

 He informed the bureau that, the office had continued to support stakeholders through virtual meetings such as the national stakeholder meeting held on the August  3, 2020 to provide an integrated and inclusive platform for the development of an effective financing model to address the needs and challenges of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Kingdom of Eswatini. 

He noted that the bureau’s recommendations for refocusing the work programme towards COVID-19 support would be taken into consideration.

Discussions

Meanwhile, the attendance of COMESA and SADC was key to the meeting’s discussions on regional integration, the African Continental Free Trade Area and industrialisation efforts. 

Innocent Makwiramiti, COMESA Senior Private Sector Development Officer, advised the meeting that the  COVID-19 challenge was an opportunity for Southern Africa to venture into areas such as, ‘reshaping manufacturing,  strengthening sector competitiveness through consolidation and innovation, catalysing the consolidation of the formalisation of MSMEs, acceleration of digital transformation, mobilisation of regional resources for increased industry production, including diaspora funding, promotion of integrated regional manufacturing and domestication of regional policies.’

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