AFRICAN countries must integrate their economies to support a new wave of industrial development across the continent, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said on Tuesday.
Mr Davies told a business forum in Durban ahead of the summit of Brics leaders starting on Tuesday in that city that Africa was at a commercial disadvantage to the emerging-market bloc as its countries lacked large populations and deep markets.
The Brics include Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The theme of this year’s summit is "Brics and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation".
"In the current global climate these large domestic markets (Brics) have been significant drivers of economic growth," Mr Davies told business executives and officials at the forum.
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nations and their annual summit in Durban"But if you start to add up the numbers across our (African) regions, we start to have the critical mass to support a new industrial wave," he said.
The first phase of integration in which African countries were involved was to expand existing regional communities and create large trading blocs, he said.
These included the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, and the East African Community, he said.
"We are engaged in negotiations for a free trade area — those negotiations are well on track to be concluded by the deadline set by heads of state of next year," he said.
The broader free trade area would embrace 26 countries with between 600-million and 700-million people, and a combined gross domestic product of $1-trillion, the minister said.
Standard Bank CE Sim Tshabalala said on Monday that from a business perspective, a free trade area throughout the continent was vital to development.
But Mr Davies also said the biggest barriers to creating a sizeable market in Africa were not only trade tariffs but also "inadequate infrastructure and underdeveloped production structures".
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