President Mnangagwa officially opens the 7th Annual SADC Industrialisation Week in Harare yesterday. — Picture: Believe Nyakudjara

Zvamaida Murwira

Senior Reporter

SADC nations must use their domestic resources to propel regional industrialisation and development focusing on what the region has and what it controls, President Mnangagwa has said. Officially opening the 7th Sadc Industrialisation Week (SIW) in Harare yesterday, the President said the obligation to build, develop and industrialise the bloc lies with the people of the region. Given the scale of the finances needed to successfully industrialise the region, he said, there was need to think outside the box for innovative financing models. The SADC Industrialisation Week opened on Sunday and ends tomorrow under the theme, “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustainable Economic Growth and Development Towards an Industrialised SADC.” A traditional precursor to the SADC Heads of State and Government Summit, it is a public-private engagement platform aimed at fostering new opportunities for intra-African trade and investment in the Southern Africa region. “Given the scale of finances needed to ensure the success of our regional industrialisation agenda, and what we control, this being the use of our domestic resources to propel our industrialisation and development agenda, the weighty obligation to build, develop and industrialise our economies lies with us, the people of this region, SADC, and the continent,” said President Mnangagwa. He urged SADC member states and stakeholders across the region to scale up transformation of domestic industries and embrace latest developments underlying the Fourth Industrial Revolution such as artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology and the use of renewable energy, among others. ReadMore