SADCC Beyond Transportation: The Challenge of Industrial Cooperation

This is a book on economic co-operation in southern Africa which looks to the future. The first ten years of the Southern African Development Co-ordination Conference have been mainly devoted to co-operation in transport and communications, not least to reduce dependence on apartheid South Africa. In order to move to an offensive to combat underdevelopment, SADCC has recognized the need to move into intra-regional trade and industrialization. Tom Oestergaard's study is an analysis of the obstacles which have to be overcome, and the minimum of changes that the SADCC countries must agree on to achieve balanced and co-ordinated development. The obstacles are the uneven economic development, varying ideologies, the fact that Southern Africa is overwhelmingly oriented to foreign markets and suppliers, and the lack of co-ordination which is heightened by the often diverse role of transnational corporations, banks, and donor agencies. The study does not stop at the general level, but provides an empirical illustration by the study of the tractor industry and SADCC. It serves to illuminate and dramatize the constraints, but also the gains to be made if co-ordination can be made a reality.