Industrialization Key To Africa’s Economic Transformation - ECA
Mr Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary of UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has urged leaders to speed up efforts at industrialisation as a way of engaging the growing youth population in Africa.
Lopes spoke on Friday at the ongoing Ministerial segment of the African Regional Conference on Population and Development in Addis Ababa.
``Only a massive commodity based industrialisation will do the trick.
``We need industrialisation because it is the only way we are going to deal with the combined strength of more people; more young people indeed, more urbanised people that do not want to be the poster boys of Live Aid concerts,`` Lopes said.
He said that in spite of the ``demographic vitality` ` and the average annual GDP growth rate of five per cent, the continent would be unable to create the 15 million jobs needed yearly, unless it embarked on commodity-based industrialisation.
``Part of the industrialisation drive is to treat agriculture as an economy, rather than a social issue, as decades of development aid around food security have not produced the agrobusiness miracle of Latin America,`` Lopes said.
According to him, Africa must also do business differently in order to embark on structural transformation.
``Africa has to review the substance of its contracts, the way it uses its reserves and liquidity, and the way it tackles illicit financial flows, the mispricing of its commodities and play hard ball to impose domestic value addition.``
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that African ministers responsible for population matters, as well as population experts, civil society and youths organisations are attending the conference. (NAN)
Mr Carlos Lopes, Executive Secretary of UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has urged leaders to speed up efforts at industrialisation as a way of engaging the growing youth population in Africa.
Lopes spoke on Friday at the ongoing Ministerial segment of the African Regional Conference on Population and Development in Addis Ababa.
``Only a massive commodity based industrialisation will do the trick.
``We need industrialisation because it is the only way we are going to deal with the combined strength of more people; more young people indeed, more urbanised people that do not want to be the poster boys of Live Aid concerts,`` Lopes said.
He said that in spite of the ``demographic vitality` ` and the average annual GDP growth rate of five per cent, the continent would be unable to create the 15 million jobs needed yearly, unless it embarked on commodity-based industrialisation.
``Part of the industrialisation drive is to treat agriculture as an economy, rather than a social issue, as decades of development aid around food security have not produced the agrobusiness miracle of Latin America,`` Lopes said.
According to him, Africa must also do business differently in order to embark on structural transformation.
``Africa has to review the substance of its contracts, the way it uses its reserves and liquidity, and the way it tackles illicit financial flows, the mispricing of its commodities and play hard ball to impose domestic value addition.``
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that African ministers responsible for population matters, as well as population experts, civil society and youths organisations are attending the conference. (NAN)
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