‘We have not unlocked full potential’ | Ramaphosa calls for action as Sadc trade lags

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on Southern African Development Community (Sadc) leaders to accelerate regional economic integration, warning that the pace of transformation remains too slow and that the bloc must turn its commitments into trade, investment and industrial development.

Intra-Sadc trade accounts for only about one-fifth of the region’s total trade, according to Ramaphosa, underscoring the gap between decades of regional integration efforts and the economic ties the bloc has sought to build.

South Africa took over the Sadc chairship from Zimbabwe on Monday, with Ramaphosa using his opening address to urge the bloc’s 16 member states to make greater use of their combined market of more than 400-million people.

“While our regional integration agenda is making progress, the pace of transformation remains too slow,” Ramaphosa said at the 46th ordinary summit of Sadc heads of state and government in eThekwini.

“After decades of integration, we have not yet unlocked the full potential of our regional market,” he said.

Ramaphosa said Sadc countries continue to import goods that could be produced in the region, while exporting raw materials that could instead be processed locally.

Read: Sadc region falling short on jobs, security and growth, report warns

“We continue to export raw materials that we could process and beneficiate ourselves,” he said. “We continue to procure services from elsewhere that our own people and businesses have the skills and capacity to provide.”

The president said South Africa’s chairship would seek to accelerate implementation of the bloc’s Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2020 to 2030, with industrialisation and regional value chains among the priorities.

“The minerals and agricultural commodities of our region must become the foundation of Southern African manufacturing,” Ramaphosa said.

“We must process more of what we mine, add value to more of what we grow and manufacture more of what we consume.”

The push for greater trade integration will also extend to the African Continental Free Trade area, which Ramaphosa said should provide Sadc businesses with continent-wide access.

But he said that would require Sadc countries to address barriers that continue to restrict regional commerce, including border procedures and differing standards.

“Sadc must become a powerful platform from which our businesses can access a continental market of more than 1.4-billion people,” Ramaphosa said.

“But this will require us to remove nontariff barriers, improve border management, harmonise standards and make it easier for goods, services, capital and skills to move across our region.”

Ramaphosa also called for increased investment in roads, railways and ports, as well as electricity, water infrastructure and digital connectivity, saying regional infrastructure should connect economies and communities rather than remain focused on national borders.

“Our decisions must be implemented,” Ramaphosa said. “They must be properly costed, funded, assigned and monitored.”

He called for Sadc communiqués to result in tangible economic activity, including factories, infrastructure and jobs.

“Our communiqués must become construction sites, factories, power lines, water systems, laboratories, businesses and jobs,” he said.

The remarks set the economic priorities for South Africa’s 2026/27 chairship, which will seek to advance Sadc Vision 2050 and build a more integrated regional economy.

Ramaphosa also linked economic integration to the region’s political stability, saying peace and development were mutually dependent.

“Peace without development is fragile. Development without peace is impossible,” he said.

He called for continued investment in preventive diplomacy, mediation and political dialogue as the bloc seeks to strengthen regional stability.

Ramaphosa said the objective of deeper integration was not to weaken the sovereignty of individual Sadc states, but to increase their collective economic power.

“Regional integration does not diminish our sovereignty.… It multiplies our collective capacity to secure the well-being of our people,” Ramaphosa said.

Business Day