From Africa Recovery, Vol.11#3 (February 1998), Briefs page

African industrialization tops UNIDO's agenda

Upon his election as the new Director-General of the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Mr. Carlos Alfredo Magariños declared in his inaugural address on 5 December that "Africa will remain UNIDO's number one priority." He told the delegates to the UNIDO General Conference in Vienna that he would listen very closely to African countries and their needs, with the aim of improving the organization's performance in the continent with increased services and programmes.

Industrial growth in Africa, measured as manufacturing value added (MVA), has spurted in recent years, according to UNIDO figures. From an actual decline in 1994, it grew by nearly 2 per cent in 1995 and 4.6 per cent in 1996. In North Africa, MVA increased by 2.4 per cent in 1994, nearly 4 per cent in 1995 and about 5 per cent in 1996. As a share of gross domestic product (GDP), however, manufacturing has remained stagnant, even declining slightly over the past quarter century, from 11 per cent of Africa's GDP in 1970 to under 10 per cent in 1995.

In a joint statement issued on African Industrialization Day, 20 November 1997, then UNIDO Director-General Mauricio de Maria y Campos, Organization of African Unity Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim and UN Economic Commission for Africa Executive Secretary K.Y. Amoako highlighted previous policy shortcomings, low management and labour skills, and inadequate physical infrastructure as major constraints on the growth of manufacturing enterprises in Africa. For the development of industry, they said, it is necessary to "redefine the role of the private sector as the main engine of growth," with a particular focus on assisting small- and medium-scale enterprises. Direct investment, they stressed, "is, and should be, the domain of nationals themselves."

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