Sub-Saharan Africa, which has been described as the new global growth frontier, needs to move away from an economic growth path that relies almost exclusively on resource extraction and export to one that includes significant local value addition.

This is according to Department of Trade and Industry industrial development and policy develop- ment deputy director-general Garth Strachan, who was the guest speaker at the inaugural bauma Africa trade fair, held at the Gallagher Convention Centre, in Midrand, from September 18 to 21.

“This will be possible only if the South African government works closely with the private sector to maximise this opportunity and encourage local investment in manufacturing in the sector through the deployment of a set of policy measures to support existing companies as they upgrade their competitiveness, innovation, research and development, new product and systems development, technology acquisition and transformation or black economic-empowerment (BEE) policies, besides others.”

However, this new economic growth path will require infrastructure development on the continent and that governments, individually and collectively, use infrastructure development as an enabler and as a stimulant for economic growth.

“There is a complicated set of factors that has to be put in place to achieve this, which includes encouraging and facilitating inward investment in the important manufacturing sector, parti- cularly in the establishment of manufacturing capacity in South Africa and the subcontinent.

“It must be acknowledged that South Africa is a world leader in many areas of the manufacturing sector. It has significant clusters of firms in the sector, which are globally competitive in terms of technology, and the firms are exporting to the sub-Saharan, European, North American and Asian markets,” said Strachan.

He stated that public-sector and, especially, private-sector pro- curement by mining companies must be acknowledged, as it could and must play an important role, through supplier development, to support the development of upstream and downstream economic activity and linkages. “This will move the region away from dependence on exporting its unbeneficiated primary com- modities,” he stated.

Strachan added that this should include, in the opinion of government, support from small and medium-size enterprise development and BEE in communities adjacent to the mines and further afield to reach the desired transformation.

“In South Africa, mining sector procurement amounts to about R200-billion a year,” he noted, adding that Africa is sitting on the wave of significantly large infra- structure programmes, which includes the significant investment of R827-billion that government has allocated to infrastructure development in Africa over the next three years.

This also included government’s pipeline of infrastructure projects falling under Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel and the Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Committee up to 2030. Thus far, R4.3-trillion had been proposed for the national and cross-border infrastructure development of the 18 strategic infrastructure projects, Strachan noted.

“This type of procurement is important because infrastructure development is not only an enabler of competitiveness, trade and economic growth – it is also a stimulant to economic growth in many different ways,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the official open- ing ceremony of bauma Africa, a panel consisting of trade fair organiser Messe München International (MMI) MD Eugen Egetenmeir, MMI South Africa CEO Elaine Crewe and Construction and Mining Equip-ment Suppliers Association (Conmesa) chairperson Lawrence Peters, discussed the trade fair.

When asked why South Africa was chosen to host the trade fair, Egetenmeir said that MMI wanted to pave the way for its construction and mining industry customers wanting to enter the African market. “Today, we welcome more than 750 exhibitors on more than 60 000 m2 of exhibition space and are expecting about 15 000 visitors to the event.”

Crewe said the few logistics challenges that arose when organising the trade show were quickly turned into positives. “A first-time event always presents some challenges, but we have received enormous support from our partners and exhibitors, which has enabled us to overcome these challenges quickly and easily.

Peters noted that, while South Africa was beset with many challenges that hampered foreign investor confidence – the key ingredient to success – in the mining and construction sector in Africa, the doors had opened up for foreign investment in the past two years and countries in Africa were also making large strides in making the continent an attractive destination for foreign investors.

“A show like bauma is a conduit for this to happen and Conmesa is optimistic that a show like this will have the support to branch out into Africa,” he concluded.