Equipping Africans towards an effective Industrial Policy
DAKAR, Senegal, June 21, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The 2013 edition of IDEP's short course on Industrial Policy in Africa opened on 10th of June at the Headquarters of the Institute in Dakar, Senegal.
This two-week short course addresses current issues in this sector that must be addressed, in order to attain industrialization. These include the need for electricity, infrastructure, water, long-time financing.
It was also emphasized during the opening ceremony that Africa is not where it should and that the path to industrialization requires knowledge of how to proceed.
IDEP's short course on Industrial Policy in Africa will address the above issues and deal with the core challenges and constraints of industrialization in Africa, with a focus on “what went wrong” and; “how Africans can make Africa develop”.
Most of the participating officials from countries like Sierra-Leone, Sudan, South Sudan, Ghana, Malawi, Niger, Uganda that are well endowed in natural resources voiced their need for efficient industrial policies during the self-introduction session of the opening ceremony.
They noted that the short course will enable them to “capitalize on their resource endowments” as advocated by the Economic Report on Africa 2013. Ethiopia, which is also participating in the course, was cited in the discussions for its example of policies in support of industrialization, as it keeps 70% of the volume of the coffee it is producing.
“The country is aggressively trying to industrialize”, indicated the representative of this champion country in the course.
The issue of branding was also raised as key in the development of an efficient and comprehensive industrial policy.
IDEP's 2013 short course on Industrial Policy in Africa has attracted a total of twenty-six participants from eleven (11) Francophone countries and eleven (11) Anglophone countries. It will end on Friday 21st of June with a certificate awarding ceremony to be attended by the ambassadors of the participating countries accredited in Senegal.