Las Palmas De Gran Canaria (Spain), 16 Feb. Africa’s sustained recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, which has driven 29 million people into extreme poverty and another 46 million into food insecurity, requires boosting its industrialization, according to the OECD.
This was stated on Thursday by the Deputy Director of the OECD Development Centre, Federico Bonaglia, at Casa África, in the Canary Islands (Spain), during the presentation of the fourth edition of the report that this organization and the African Union are realizing the dynamics of development in Africa, entitled this year “Regional value chains for a sustainable recovery”.
Bonaglia stated that, in solo back decades, Africa will be the continent more poblado and more young of the world, while this is año will be that register, tras Asia, the second mayor economic increase, del 3.9%, por delante incluso de Latin America.
However, he warned that growing Africa’s GDP will not be enough to create quality jobs and reduce the negative impacts of the pandemic, which has deepened its food crisis and rising commodity prices.
For this reason, the OECD considers it essential that African countries take advantage of the enormous opportunity they believe the African Continental Free Trade Area, created in 2021, represents to “invest in the creation of of regional value.
Bonaglia stressed that we must learn from the mistakes of the past, so that from now on the business initiatives that are proposed for the continent take into account the reality of the African private sector.
On the other hand, he advocated reducing the high costs of trade, for which the OECD proposes to invest in a system of harmonization to test the quality of products, in addition to taking advantage of digitalization to facilitate access SMEs to markets in other countries.
The report, which will be presented this Friday in Madrid, also analyzes the role that public policies can play in Africa’s economic recovery based, for example, on public procurement, which could be used strategically to strengthen the development of SMEs even at the regional level. level.
Bonaglia pointed out that every year 29 million young Africans enter the labor market on the continent, although very few find a job and only 8% obtain a quality one, which has to do with the shortcomings of the education system and also with the role of business, as less than a third of Africa provides vocational training opportunities to its employees, he said.
The OECD representative alluded to the “stereotypes” that sometimes exist about the risks of investing in Africa, an issue for which this international body and the African Union have agreed to set up an observatory “to help measure precisely the opportunities and risks, and offer a more realistic perception” of the situation in each country, he announced. ECE
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