The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is convening an Extra-Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government on 29 April 2015 to agree on a regional industrial development strategy. This follows a policy decision that industrialisation be placed centre stage in the SADC integration agenda, in line with Article 4(2) of the SADC Protocol on Trade which states that the elimination of import duties in terms of the SADC Free Trade Area (FTA) should be accompanied by an industrialisation strategy to improve the competitiveness of the region’s economies. The strategy is also being developed as part of the process to revise the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) which was adopted in 2003.

Industrial policy matters in the 21^st century. Industrial policy, generally explained as a collection of policy interventions that directly and indirectly influence industrial structure and performance, is first and foremost a national governance issue.

The phenomenon of global value chains offers opportunities for late industrialisation. The growing desire of the continent and regional economic communities (RECs) in Africa to promote value chains across borders presents an opportunity for the formulation of strategies to address regulatory barriers and constraints to cross-border linkages and value chain development. However, this requires a new thinking about trade and industrial policy instruments. The use of conventional policy instruments such as import tariff, export restrictions, export taxes, restrictive rules of origin governing preferential trade agreements as well as the pervasiveness other non-tariff barriers to trade can hinder efforts to develop and promote value chains.

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