Decisive industrialisation the way to economic development
PART of the EFF’s contribution to the 2021 State of the Nation Address (Sona) was a thematic focus on industrialisation and industrial policy.
The reason we focus on industrial policy is that a correctly applied industrial policy is a fundamental prerequisite for a developmental and redistributive project that must create jobs, defeat poverty and reduce inequalities.
South Africa’s poverty crisis is worsened by the lack of a cogent, implementable and aggressive industrial policy.
The role of governments anywhere in the world, particularly in the present age, must primarily be about promotion, protection, and enhancement of industrialisation, particularly in the manufacturing sectors.
The old-age observation by Karl Marx that, “industrialisation draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation”, is correct. This is further affirmed by the World Bank’s former chief economist Justin Yifu Lin who, says, “except for a few
