The Sunday Mail
Dr John Magufuli
I stand before Your Excellencies when you have given me a huge responsibility to chair this organisation (Sadc) for the next one year.
Allow me, therefore, on behalf of the government and people of the United Republic of Tanzania, as well as that of my own, to thank Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government of the Sadc for the trust you have bestowed on me. . .
It is an open secret that since its inception, Sadc has recorded some important milestones: the elimination of colonialism and apartheid rule being the greatest of them all.
But, in addition, thanks to the efforts undertaken by this organisation, peace and security, which form the cornerstone of our political and socio-economic development, reign in most parts of our region.
Indeed, there is no more peaceful and stable region on our continent than the Sadc region.
I should also mention that since the launch of the Sadc Free Trade Area in 2008, intra-regional trade within the region has been growing steadily, from 16 percent of the regional GDP to 22 percent in 2018.
It is also pleasing to note that a strong democratic culture is now entrenched in our region and peaceful changes have become the norm.
These are indeed very important milestones.
Despite these achievements, our region is still confronted by many challenges.
Yes, there are still many challenges facing our region.
Due to time constraints, I will only highlight three of them.
Conflict
Just recently, I mentioned that our region is peaceful and more stable than any other part of this continent.
This is not to say, however, that our region is free from conflict.
In some of our countries, conflict situations still exist.
In addition, there are other security threats, including international terrorism, organised crimes, climate change, drought, flood, hunger and diseases that continue to face our region.
It is, therefore, imperative that we continue to work together to address these challenges.
This is important because as we all very well know, peace and security are the most critical pre-conditions for socio-economic development and transformation.
Hence, our countries must continue to work hard to make sure that our region is free from conflict.
As the chair of Sadc for the next one year, we pledge our commitment to work with all the member states in order to ensure that peace and security prevail in our region.
Economic Emancipation
Putting peace and security issues aside, the biggest challenge that I see currently confronting our sub-region is that of economic emancipation.
In my welcome remarks, I mentioned that in transforming the SADCC with double “C” into the Sadc with a single “C” in 1992, the leaders of this region had one key objective: to use the political achievements to advance socio-economic development and transformation.
Needless to say — I am sure I will be speaking on behalf of many citizens in this region — that this objective has not been realised, and to be honest, if there are no concerted efforts, it will take ages for this objective to be realised.
And I am not saying this without evidence.
Last year, our region set a target of GDP growth of 7 percent, but it grew by only 3,1 percent.
This was below the continent’s average growth of 3,5 percent; the Eastern African region growth of 5,7 percent; the Northern African region growth of 4,9 percent and the 3,3 percent growth in the Western African region.
In addition, our intra-regional and extra-regional trade performance is also not so good.
In 2017, the Sadc region, with 16-member states, a population of 327 million people, a total area of 9 882 959 square kilometres, and which is blessed with abundant and diverse natural resources, only exported goods worth US$143 billion.
On the other hand, Mexico and Vietnam, countries with areas of 1 943 955 square kilometres and 331 210 square kilometres and a population of 132,5 million people and 97,5 million people each exported goods worth US$403 billion and US$214 billion, respectively.
This clearly shows that our economies are not performing well and we are still very far from achieving our economic objectives.
I am saying this openly because there is no need to hide it. That is the truth.
Information Gap
Of course, there are many reasons why our economies are not performing as expected; one of them being lack of information on the opportunities available in our respective countries.
In May this year, for instance, I had the opportunity to visit four Sadc countries.
Three of them, due to drought and other natural disasters, were experiencing shortage of food.
In this respect, it surprised me to hear that those countries were planning to import foodstuffs from outside Africa, while we in Tanzania were struggling to find a market for 2,5 million tonnes of our food surplus.
But that is just one example.
Due to lack of information, our countries are also importing cars, sugar, and fuel very far away from our region, while some Sadc member states — South Africa, Mauritius and Angola — for instance, are producing the same, respectively.
Export and import costs also contribute to the poor economic performance of our region.
Studies have shown that costs relating to customs in our region are three times higher than in Asia and five times higher than in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.
These costs, compounded by the transportation costs, make the situation even worse.
I am reliably informed, for instance, that it costs less, overall, to import animal feed and refined sugar from South America to our countries than to import the same from within our region.
Difference in trade and investment policies, laws, regulations and standards has also its fair share in hindering businesses and economic co-operation between and among Sadc member states and, thus, affecting our economic performance.
For example, it is possible today for a good that is produced and cleared in one member state to be denied to enter the market of another member state for not being able to meet the quality standards.
Why can’t we harmonise our policies, laws, regulations and our quality standards and be able to increase the volume and value of our intra- and extra-regional trade?
Unless we do that, it will remain a daydream for our region to fully realise its economic objectives.
At this juncture, allow me also to mention that apart from those three challenges that I have just highlighted, there is one more challenge that hinders our efforts towards economic emancipation, which to me is the biggest of them all.
Industrialisation
That challenge concerns the low level of industrialisation in our region.
Your Excellencies, history has taught us that no country or region in the world has ever developed without undergoing the process of industrialisation.
And even today, all developed nations are the industrialised countries.
Just to give you an idea of why the industrial sector is important, the World Trade Organisation Statistical Review Report of 2018 indicates that the value of the global trade in 2017 reached US$23 trillion, of which US$17,7 trillion was merchandise trade and US$5,3 trillion (was) commercial services.
Of importance to note, however, is that of the US$17,7 trillion merchandise trade, 70 percent, almost US$12,4 trillion, were manufactured goods.
In that same year, Africa, in total, exported goods worth US$417 billion, and as I mentioned earlier, Sadc exported goods worth US$143 billion. More than 60 percent of Africa’s and Sadc’s exports were raw materials, mainly agricultural products, mining and fuel.
That means that Africa, including the Sadc region, has not benefited much from that increase in global trade.
This explains why Africa’s share in the global trade is less than 3 percent.
It also explains why the terms of trade are always in favour of other regions.
For instance, in the year 2017, Africa exported goods worth US$417 billion, but its imports were US$534 billion.
The reason is simple: we are selling goods of low value.
It, therefore, requires us, for instance, to sell not less than 20 tonnes of cotton, coffee or tea to buy just one tractor.
And this also explains why our people continue to remain poor.
In world markets, raw materials are sold at very low prices.
In addition, due to the low level of industrialisation in our region, the problem of unemployment is increasing.
By exporting our raw materials, it means we are also exporting jobs.
It is against this background that I would like to seize this opportunity to commend Sadc for adopting the Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap 2015 – 2063.
I also commend the decision to prioritise industrialisation in each year’s Sadc Summit themes and for introducing Industrialisation Week prior to each Ordinary Summit.
I am confident that these efforts will go a long way in promoting industrialisation in our respective countries and the region at large.
In this respect, I wish to assure this august body that issues pertaining to industrialisation will be the top priority of our chairmanship . . .
Our countries are not poor. They are very rich. We have all the resources to make us rich.
Apart from a large population of 327 million people, the Sadc region is home to a large number of wildlife and plant species that are of extreme importance; not to mention livestock and marine ecosystems.
The region has also a wide diversity of ecozones, including grassland, bushveld, karoo, savannah and riparian zones.
In addition, our region is endowed with hydrocarbon materials and mineral resources.
Indeed, as a matter of fact, our region contributes to the world about 18 percent of cobalt, 21 percent of zinc, 26 percent of gold, 55 percent of diamond and 72 percent of platinum group of metals.
Therefore, we are not poor. These are indeed resources that one can hope to have in order to be rich.
We must, therefore, work together to ensure that we exploit and utilise these resources for the benefit of our countries and our peoples.
This is important because it is only through co-operation that we will be able to utilise these resources effectively and achieve our objectives . . .
Indeed, I personally believe that if we can work together, our economy will not only grow by 3,1 percent, we shall be able to improve trade between us, our industrial sector will grow, our contribution to the global trade shall increase, our people will no longer remain poor and decent jobs will be available to our young people.
In addition, I believe if we work together, peace and security will prevail in our region and we shall also have strong early warning mechanisms and systems that will help us deal or reduce the impact of natural disasters that have been frequently affecting our countries, including famine, diseases, floods, cyclones and drought.
I have urged you to work together in order to achieve our objectives.
Effective Secretariat
However, at this juncture allow me also to challenge our secretariat to assess itself.
I am saying this because all the problems that I have highlighted, which currently confront our region, happen while we have our own institution, that is secretariat, which is supposed to help us member states overcome them.
I personally believe that if our secretariat would perform its function efficiently and effectively, it would have found answers to the question why over the past 10 years our GDP growth has been on a downward and irregular trend.
The last time that our GDP grew by more than 5 percent was the year 2008, whereby it grew by 5,7 percent.
Of course, in the year 2005, 2006 and 2007 our GDP also grew by 6,6 percent, 7,3 percent and 8 percent, respectively.
However, since then, our economic growth has never grown by more than 5 percent: 2009 (0,6 percent), 2010 (4 percent), 2011 (4 percent), 2012 (4,4 percent), 2013 (4,3 percent), 2014 (3,4 percent), 2015 (2,2 percent), 2016 (1,4 percent), 2017 (3 percent) and last year 2018 (3,1 percent).
Had our secretariat also lived up to its duty, our countries would have known the reasons why, after two consecutive years of positive trade balance in 2010 and 2011, Sadc region external position deteriorated to a negative balance of US$17 billion in 2015, US$9 billion in 2016 and improved a little bit in 2017 to US$1 billion.
These are some of the critical questions that our secretariat must address and advise member states accordingly for a new direction.
It would certainly be remiss of me to end my speech without saying anything on Zimbabwe. As we are all aware, this brotherly and sisterly country has been on sanctions for a long time.
These sanctions have not only affected the people of Zimbabwe and their Government, but our entire region.
It is like a human body: when you chop one of its parts, it affects the whole body.
Therefore, I would like to seize this opportunity to urge the international community to lift sanctions it imposed on Zimbabwe.
This brotherly country, after all, has now opened a new chapter and it is ready to engage with the rest of the world. It is, therefore, I believe, in the interest of all parties concerned to see these sanctions removed.
In this respect, I wish also to urge all Sadc member states to continue to speak with one voice on the issue of Zimbabwe.
Long Live Sadc!
Long Live Africa!
Aluta Continua
This is an abridged version of Tanzanian President Dr John Magufuli’s acceptance speech after taking over as Sadc chairperson at the recent 39th Ordinary Summit of the regional bloc in Tanzania.
