Business hub concept strengthens private sector role in SADC

IN A joint-effort between the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the two organisations have unveiled the Nepad SADC Business Hub – designed to consolidate the private sector on a regional basis. According to Dr Reuel Khoza, chairman of the Nepad Business Foundation, the emergence of trading partners such as India and China has resulted in Africa reviewing the way it currently operates and trades with these emerging super powers. At present, he added, business in Africa is conducted at a country level and in silos, which results in less optimal trade negotiations. “Taking into consideration the enormous potential of these emergent trading opportunities, it has necessitated the consolidation of Africa into regional trading hubs,” said Khoza. “This consolidation into regional trading hubs will allow SADC to stack up and engage in respectable trade relations and set terms of trade that are favourable for both sides and have a formidable partner that is good for reciprocity.” According to the foundation, the SADC has approximately 150-to-200- million people residing within the various countries, with SA at around 42-m. “The critical mass of SADC makes the region more viable and attractive to international trading partners because it provides economies of scale which makes it a lucrative market,” said Khoza.