03/11/2014
Zimbabwe ponders the struggle to industrialise
As the world?s least industrialised region with a youthful and fast-growing workforce, African policymakers have for decades put industrialization at the top of their development agendas. To date, however, industrialisation policies have failed as the share of manufacturing industry in sub-Saharan GDP has declined over the past 35 years to 10 per cent from 16.5 per cent in 1980. In two of the few countries that did industrialise rapidly ? South Africa and Zimbabwe ? manufacturing?s share in GDP has halved from earlier peaks in the 1990s so that today both are striving to reverse this ?premature de-industrialisation.? Zimbabwe, though, is hardly typical.Read more img...
