T here are signs that manufacturing in the SADC region is starting to strengthen and diversify, with South Africa no longer being the sole source of value-added goods. A paper published in June by the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research states that levels of intra-SADC trade are rising as a share of total trade. In other words, trade is becoming more regionalised. Also, there is more evidence of the emergence of regional value chains. “There are clear emerging examples of dynamic growth in the export of manufactured goods to South Africa from the other countries of the region,” the paper’s author writes. Contrary to many concerns regarding low levels of regional integration, trade for many countries is highly regionalised, even when compared with the highly integrated Asian and European regions, the paper adds. IntraSADC export shares exceed 30% for Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Eswatini (94% in 2017), the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zimbabwe. In contrast, Angola, Comoros, Seychelles and Madagascar export less than 10% of their goods to the SADC region. Nine of the 15 SADC countries sourced more than 30% of their total imports from SADC partners in 2017. It has taken 39 years to reach this point. Established in 1980 as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), the SADC is described by former council chair Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as a unique regional economic bloc that has “withstood the test of time”. Speaking ahead of the opening of the 39th SADC Summit, which was hosted in Dar es Salaam in August, Nandi-Ndaitwah who is also Namibia’s deputy prime minister and minister of international relations and cooperation, said: “Deepening integration in the SADC is what we need, as that is the only process that will lead us to the full integration of the region and the continent, thus making it possible for Africa to address the challenges of underdevelopment and poverty.” She said the SADC had started identifying potential value chains in the region, “which have a specific focus on a combination of how individual and regional strengths can be leveraged for optimal benefits from both regional and global value chains”. “This approach specifically allows us to profile the sectors in each country and develop the strategies for value addition, beneficiation and downstream processing.” Where the SADC has established connections is in power generation. Nandi-Ndaitwah said the establishment of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) had allowed the region to share surplus energy. SAPP is a regional body that co-ordinates the planning, generation, transmission and marketing of electricity in southern Africa on behalf of memberstate utilities and all mainland countries, with the exception of Angola, Malawi and Tanzania, which are connected to the regional grid.
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Deepening integration in the SADC is what we need, as that is the only process that will lead us to the full integration of the region and the continent. – Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah