The Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda (CCA) has released a policy guide for the manufacturing sector. This is because the manufacturing industry is so important for creating jobs and keeping the economy growing. Titled “A Policymaker’s Guide to Manufacturing 4.0″ and a pilot implementation program on digital industrial development in Mauritius,”
The guide, called “A Policymaker’s Guide to Manufacturing 4.0 Development,” was released at the 2022 National Manufacturing Summit in Mauritius.
The digital-first guide was made to help Commonwealth policymakers, especially those in the least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDSs), understand how new digital technologies are changing their industrial development and how they can set up their policies to take advantage of new opportunities and deal with any problems that might come up.
During the summit, the CCA also announced a pilot project with the Ministry of Industrial Development, SMEs, and Cooperatives of Mauritius to implement the guide.
The implementation will give small island developing states a chance to learn first-hand about the opportunities and problems they face in developing their digital industries.
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Why the Manufacturing Policy Guide?
Before the policy guide was released, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, the Rt Hon Patricia Scotland, KC, said, “I am confident that policymakers across the Commonwealth will find this Guide informative and useful in understanding and using new technologies and innovations to advance their digital industrial development.”
“These new developments open up new chances to make new and better products, improve processes, and make supply chains more flexible and reliable.” “They also show how important it is to deal with barriers and challenges that might make it hard for these innovations to be adopted and used effectively,” Scotland said.
The Secretary-General added that “this is important to make sure that businesses across the Commonwealth stay competitive and that the private sector can also drive long-term, sustainable economic growth and job creation.”
Hon. Soomilduth Bholah, Mauritius’ Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs, and Cooperatives felt it was necessary to seek Commonwealth support to ensure the value of the policy guide was realized.
Bholah said, “We are trying to make a successful jump into the world of Industry 4.0.” To do this, we have asked the Commonwealth Secretariat for help with a project to make it easier for manufacturing companies to use high-tech tools.
How Emerging Technologies Are Reshaping Business Operations
New and upcoming technologies and methods are changing and reshaping how companies make products and run their businesses, and they will continue to innovate in the future.
Digital technologies are increasingly applied to and integrated with industrial manufacturing.
This changes how the industry works and challenges the traditional idea of what industrial development means.
The CCA, therefore, explained that it worked with leading experts in advanced manufacturing and industrial policy from around the Commonwealth in developing this guide and is ready to render its support to Commonwealth member nations in advancing their knowledge of modern manufacturing and implementing digital industrial policies.
The Mauritius pilot program is a step towards achieving this goal.
About Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda
The Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda (CCA) is a platform for nations to have an interchange of best practices and experiences to trade and investment, and undertake domestic reform. This cross-fertilization will facilitate a further reduction in trade friction among member countries.
Commonwealth Leaders adopted the CCA at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in April 2018, with the goal of boosting trade and investment links across the Commonwealth and raising intra-Commonwealth trade to US$2 trillion by 2030.
The CCA is structured around five workings ‘clusters’, each chaired by a member nation, focusing on separate key areas of connectivity, including Physical, Digital, Regulatory, Supply Side and Business-to-Business connectivity.