UNECA advocates industrial policy, holistic tracking of corruption for growth

Building on the main premise of the Transformative Industrial Policy for Africa report – which calls for smart and dynamic industrial policy directions for sustained and inclusive economic growth, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has said African countries must insist on three things— building strong human capital, creating and improving strong development-prone institutions and mapping policy coherence.

According to UNECA, transformative industrial policy remains crucial for the continent which also needs a more holistic approach to appraising and tackling corruption – especially being mindful of the international dimension of the problem – within the context of governance.

In spite of divergent currents underpinning development policy advocacy for African countries, Director of the Sub-regional Office for Central Africa of UNECA, Antonio Pedro said: “It becomes an issue of urgent public policy for our member States to find the necessary set of policy instruments and interventions to enable our countries to sustain high rates of growth, generate reliable sources of revenue, optimise evolving demographics and the ‘youth bulge’ in order to attain greater macro-economic stability and, ultimately, achieve sustainable and resilient growth towards the upper-middle or advanced income status”.

Pedro said through the smart implementation of industrial policy, which promotes resource-based industrialisation, the continent would expand its productive capabilities.

He added that the move would also require defying its initial comparative advantages – since such an advantage (which mostly favours the export of raw materials and the production of goods requiring low capabilities), can be easily eroded by competitors.

This posture got the approbation of the Director of Industry in Cameroon’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Technological Development, Mindjos Momeny, who said industrial policy enjoys a privileged place on Cameroon’s development agenda and that the competitiveness of its industrial sectors has greatly contributed to the resilience of the country’s economy within the context of the nose dive in commodity and oil prices.

Meanwhile the Director of IRIC – Minister Plenipotentiary, Pierre Emmanuel Tabi said Africa needs resolute industrial policies for its transformation but only within the context of good governance, multilateral arrangements and with the involvement of the private sector and civil society.