HARARE,– The SADC Secretariat, in collaboration with the Government of Zimbabwe, the SADC Business Council, and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), will host the 7th Annual SADC Industrialisation Week (SIW) from July 28 to August 2, 2024.
The event, themed “Promoting Innovation to Unlock Opportunities for Sustainable Economic Growth and Development Towards an Industrialised SADC,” will take place at the Harare International Conference Centre.
SIW is the largest public-private platform dedicated to industrialisation in the SADC region. It brings together SADC Member States, the private sector, international partners, policymakers, researchers, SMEs, financial institutions, and civil society to share experiences and strategies for driving industrialisation and economic transformation in the region.
The week-long event will include a variety of activities such as seminars, meetings, workshops, a gala dinner, exhibitions, and site visits to selected manufacturing facilities and industrial hubs in Zimbabwe. Key focus areas will be mineral beneficiation, agro-processing, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure development, women and youth entrepreneurship, and African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) enterprises.
The primary objective of this annual event is to foster multi-stakeholder engagement in implementing the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap 2015-2063. Participants will review progress and challenges in executing the strategy and share success stories and solutions for developing robust regional value chains across priority sectors within the SADC region.
This year’s edition follows successful SIWs hosted by the Kingdom of Eswatini, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, and the United Republic of Tanzania since its inception in 2016.
The 2024 SIW aims to build on the successes of previous years and further the SADC region’s industrialisation agenda, emphasizing innovation and sustainable economic growth.
