G20 china_web

Leader view
Africa has placed
industrialisation at
the core of its efforts
to promote sustainable
growth and development
global value chains indicate an archaic trade pattern
of reliance on the export of raw commodities and the
import of value-added products. This emphasises the
need for increased efforts to transform the structure of
African economies to improve productivity, increase
manufacturing, enhance economic diversification and
address supply-side constraints.
Advances in innovation and technology are
increasingly important contributors to economic
growth through innovation support instruments
that promote technological innovation in industry,
and to develop collaboration frameworks focused on
increasing investment in technology development,
diffusion and commercialisation. The use of modern
technology has the potential to catapult the continent’s
industrialisation process. As we contemplate the fourth
and new industrial revolution, we must ensure that
no one is left behind and that Africa and the leastdeveloped
countries are not further marginalised.
Africa has placed industrialisation at the core
of its efforts to promote sustainable growth and
development, as well as its regional integration
initiatives. Critical to Africa’s effective participation in
the global economy and its ability to attain the goals
of the 2030 Agenda would be honouring the G20’s
commitments to forge strong partnerships with the
continent to ensure the means of implementation
and the necessary investments in technology and
infrastructure development, technology transfer, skills
development and industrial financing that will improve
Africa’s competitiveness and productive capacity, as
well as reduce transaction costs.
NEPAD’s authors recognised that Africa’s
development is not only an economic imperative,
but also a political and security one as well.
Underdevelopment and Africa’s economic
marginalisation will continue to be potential sources
of instability on the continent. For African leaders
the linkage between development and peace is well
appreciated and in a globalised world the mutual
benefit of development was made manifest in
NEPAD's assertion that “for industrialised countries,
development in Africa will reduce the levels of global
social exclusion and mitigate a major potential source
of global social instability”.
Africa’s industrialisation will therefore not only
contribute to the eradication of poverty, the reduction
of inequality and job creation, but will also contribute
positively to global growth and our collective ideal of a
prosperous and peaceful world. It will realise Africa's
grand vision of "an integrated, prosperous and peaceful
Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a
dynamic force in the global arena". G20
JON HRUSA/EPA/ALAMY
G7G20.com September 2016 • G20 China: The Hangzhou Summit 23