GABORONE, March 27 (Xinhua/GNA) — The southern African countries on Friday, were urged to support the informal sector, as a way of addressing barriers to economic growth that have hindered its success.
Mope Khati, chairperson of the Committee on Human and Social Development and Special Programs, at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum, made the remarks at the opening of the committee’s three-day statutory meeting in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.
Describing the informal sector as a sleeping giant of entrepreneurship and local innovation, Khati said SADC countries should not eliminate it, but rather formalize and integrate it into the mainstream economy.
He said the southern African region must develop strategies, which provide social protection to those in the informal sector, that offer them access to finance and skills development, and that gradually bring them into the formal value chains.
In doing so, Khati said the region can transform this vast sea of informality into a powerful engine for industrialization and re-industrialization, thereby building the region’s economies from the ground up.
GNA