Fostering a resilient regional economy in the SADC through regional integration

Abstract

Resilience in regional economic growth in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) can potentially be increased through the implementation of a regional policy which emphasizes regional integration. This will include the removal of tariff and non‐tariff based barriers to trade through trade liberalization and designing more efficient spatial linkages that facilitate increased intra‐regional trade. However, resilience in the region's economic growth is hindered by sluggish implementation of regional trade liberalization and spatial integration policies, as tariff and non‐tariff barriers to trade remain. The aim of the paper is to evaluate regional integration in fostering resilience in economic growth through its enhancement of economic interaction between member states, as well as facilitating increased spatial connectivity and the efficient movement of intra‐regional trade. In this paper, case studies of regional integration models as applied in eight developing country regional trading blocs, including the SADC, are used to determine the effect of intra‐regional trade on the resilience of economic growth in the face of an external economic crisis, namely the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and subsequent recession. Results of the above analysis indicate that intra‐regional trade through regional integration accelerates a region's recovery of its pre‐shock growth path. Despite considerable intra‐regional trade, the recovery of the SADC is hindered by the sluggish post‐shock growth of South Africa, its dominant economy. Based on the findings, it is recommended that intra‐regional trade be strengthened between SADC member states through increased economic integration, trade facilitation through development corridors, and capacitating dynamic regional institutions to oversee economic resilience strategies based on adjustment and adaptation.

Investigating city economic convergence in KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa: Integration or isolation

“…Controlling for regional and period specific effects (panel regression by including cross-section and period fixed effects) results in a significant improvement in the regression equation (Table 3 = The more open an economy is, the more exposed a region is to competitive pressures from outside. This is then especially relevant where regions have large trade volumes with other regions (Pretorius et al, 2017). This implies that companies in such regions have to improve their competitive positions constantly.…”

“…The more open an economy is, the more exposed a region is to competitive pressures from outside. This is then especially relevant where regions have large trade volumes with other regions (Pretorius et al, ). This implies that companies in such regions have to improve their competitive positions constantly.…”

“…The economic integration between two or more regions is a measure of the degree of the flow of goods and service between the two or more regions, or the degree of preference between the two or more regions (Pretorius, Drewes, & Van Aswegen, ). It is a concept applied to describe how different aspects between city economies are integrated and is a process whereby regions cooperate and integrate with one another to reduce or eliminate barriers to the flow of products.…”

A Policy Approach towards Achieving Regional Economic Resilience in Developing Countries: Evidence from the SADC

“…Resilience research is diffused among a multitude of disciplines, contributing to a wide range of "discipline-specific" definitions and applications [19] (p. 12). Prominent strands of resilience research are found in the paradigms of political and social sciences, ecology, biology, engineering, psychology, business studies, geography, economic studies and spatial planning [18][19][20][21]. Christopherson et al [1], referencing the resilience of ecological systems, transfers the concept of resilience to the framework of economic and spatial planning.…”

“…Existing research highlights the elements inherent to external economic disturbances that perpetuate the impact on internal economic growth [9,10,14]. Academic research has also explored the potential of regional integration and industrialization to support regional development and resilience [15,16] and to highlight the limitations in SADC policy creation and implementation in achieving regional development objectives [13,17,18]. The research gap this paper seeks to fill is to determine the nature of nuanced regional policy implementation in the unique context of the SADC.…”