Costed Action Plan for SADC Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap
inflow of FDI for the region rises to $12 billion or 1.7 percent of GDP which exceeds the
Sub-Saharan average (1.3 percent) and is not far short of the median for Sub-Saharan
Africa (2.4 percent). Net official development assistance inflows in 2014, estimated at
$12.6 billion, further narrow the financing gap, though because no more than half of this
– at the most - represents investment, the financing requirement remains formidable.
On the basis of external debt data (excluding Namibia and Seychelles), the region has
been borrowing (net) some $14.5 billion a year (2 percent of GDP) since 2010. This still
leaves a large financing gap of 9 percent of GDP, comprising a balance-of-payments
financing gap of 4 percent of GDP to which must be added a further 5 percent of GDP
for the domestic shortfall of savings.
Resource needs projections were made for the period 2015-2030 based on a number of
plausible assumptions:
(i) That the SADC region will continue to target a per capita growth rate of 6 percent
annually.
(ii) That resource use efficiency will gravitate towards median ICOR values (5.4).
(Iii) That savings rates, population growth, and the FDI and ODA as ratios of GDP will
remain at their historical averages.
The projections reveal that investment will need to rise substantially to 41.3 percent of
GDP as compared to 23.6 percent (2014), or to about double recent levels in response
to the targeted high growth rate and the assumed improved capital efficiency. With
savings rates and FDI and ODA net flows are maintained at their historical levels, the
overall financing gap is accordingly projected to also rise to 19.2 percent of GDP
compared to 11.3 percent in 2014 (see Tables 7.2 and 7.3). These projections have
important policy implications for resource mobilization.
Detailed policy reforms to achieve these goals, some already set out in Industrialization
Strategy and Roadmap and accompanying consultancy report, are beyond the reach
and scope of the Action Plan.
7.3
Key Messages
To close these financing gaps, action will be needed across the policy spectrum:
(i) Boosting domestic savings. Domestic savings rates would need to be
significantly raised, thereby reducing reliance on volatile and fickle offshore
financing.
(ii) Fiscal consolidation. An IMF study (2015) suggests that four SADC countries –
Angola, Madagascar, South Africa and Tanzania – have the potential to
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