‘Research vital for implementation of Sadc industrialisation policy’

Research and information management is important in the implementation of Sadc’s industrialisation policy, visiting Sadc executive secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax said on Friday.

Dr Tax said this after touring the Southern Africa Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) in the capital.

“We touched on a number of issues in terms of how we can sustain our independence in terms of documentation and information management,” she said.

“I think you will agree with me, we are moving from political liberation to economic liberation, so the focus was on areas of cooperation. We can work together to ensure that indeed we have economic development in our region.

“As you know, industrialisation is our priority as we speak and recognising the importance of research and information, we have agreed that we need to work together in packaging the strategies that are supporting industrialisation – the action plan – by putting in place information which will facilitate implementation of this important strategy.”

Sadc is on an industrialisation drive to speed up economic growth by leveraging on the region’s abundant natural resources.

The current industrialisation policy was adopted in 2015 in order to promote regional integration.

Dr Tax also commended SARDC for assisting in monitoring the implementation of protocols and action plans through its publications.

SARDC has a strong record in research, collecting, analysing, writing and commenting and disseminating knowledge from a regional perspective.

The centre has several institutions focusing on various areas that include energy, infrastructure development, gender, environment, water resources, climate change, China-Africa studies and history.

Meanwhile, Dr Tax also congratulated Zimbabwe for celebrating its 38th independence anniversary on Tuesday, saying her visit to SARDC had brought back memories of the region’s liberation struggles.

“Let me congratulate the Government and people of Zimbabwe for their 38th independence and that being the case, we are here in Zimbabwe. It would not be nice to go without coming here and refresh our memories of the liberation of Southern Africa,” she said.