Statement by Ambassador Albert M.Muchanga on the Need for Industrialization and Market ...

36 Pages·2017·0.27 MB·English

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AFRICAN UNION UNION AFRICAINE
UNIÃO AFRICANA

Statement by Ambassador Albert M.Muchanga on
the Need for Industrialization and Market
Integration in Africa Delivered on 22nd November,
2017 at the European Parliament Africa Week High
Level Event

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I thank His Excellency Antonio Tajani for
inviting me to this High Level Event.

The idea of having an Africa Week is most
welcome.

It is a contribution to consolidating the
partnership not just between the African
Union and the European Union but also
among the people of the two regions.
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The need for industrialization and market
integration in Africa is well articulated by
both the African Union and the United
Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

In 2008, the African Union Ministers of
Industry stated that: ‘No country or region
in the world has achieved prosperity and a
decent socio-industrial life for its citizens
without the development of a robust
industrial sector’.
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In the same spirit, the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa stated in
2016 in its report entitled:
Transformative Industrial Policy for
Africa: ‘no country, except a few states
exceptionally rich in oil (e.g., Qatar,
Kuwait, Brunei) or very small financial
havens (e.g., Monaco, Liechtenstein), has
achieved high and sustainable standards of
living without developing a significant
manufacturing sector’.

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From these two quotations, it is clear that
Africa has to industrialize for her to move
up the ladder of sustainable development.
Your Excellences:
Efforts to industrialize started a long time
ago. African countries have since
independence embarked on
industrialization programmes but with
limited success. As a result of the limited
success, their sustainable development
challenges have not been met.
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For example; the productivity levels in
Africa are still very low and African
economies still largely depend on
commodity production and export.
These challenges translate into structural
weaknesses of the African economies,
their marginal role in the global economy
and their failure to create opportunities for
decent employment as well as decent
living standards for the African people.
With this situation also comes economic
vulnerability, low income and low
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human development levels among our
people across the continent.
As a result, Africa has the highest number
of least developed countries. Furthermore,
a majority of them seem to be
experiencing low income and middle
income traps.

Industrialization will be one of they key
levers to bring our countries out of their
development traps.
Your Excellences:
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Before I dwell on what it would take to
put Africa on the path of sustainable
industrialization, I would like to briefly
touch on the historical patterns of our
industrialization efforts.
Africa has historically experienced
rapid economic growth during periods
of commodity booms. It is in this
connection that Africa’s value added in
her Gross Domestic Product is largely
dominated by oil and mineral exporting
countries. This has made Africa’s
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industrialization base weak. Indeed,
import substitution industrialization
could not be sustained in the face of
foreign exchange shortages arising from
low commodity prices and heavy
external debt servicing obligations.
It is against this background that the
share of African manufacturing to Gross
Domestic Product fell from 19% in 1975
to around 11% in 2006 and has
stagnated around 10% since 2008
(according to publications by the World
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Bank. It is in the same vein that the
contribution of African manufacturing
to Gross Domestic Product has been
relatively small, compared to other
regions of the world.
Consequently, Africa’s weak
industrialization base has failed to
generate high productivity, decent jobs
and structural transformation.
The two quotations cited above indicate
that Africa has to meet the
industrialization challenge. The only
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