Increasingly, many emerging economies are pursuing industrial strategies aimed at protecting their resource base to generate advantages for their downstream industries. Natural resources exploitation has the potential to shape and transform economies. Mining brings employment, government revenues, and opportunities for economic growth and diversification.
Yet, these resources have not translated into significant development in developing countries including the OACPS Members. According to Ms. Marit Kitaw, interim Director of the African Minerals Development Center of African Union Commission, main challenges for downstream beneficiation and value addition include: the lack of regional cooperation which prevent OACPs countries to reach economies of scale; the lack of local demand for value added products; inadequate governance, including policies and regulatory frameworks; risk perceptions; the lack of skills and competencies in terms of technology development; inadequate infrastructure and the lack of access to capital and financing.
“We need to use our own stock of critical raw materials in order to promote industrialization in our countries” pleads Junior Lodge, Assistant Secretary General, Structural Economic Transformation and Trade, of the OACPS Secretariat in this video: