SONJA BOSHOFF: Why industrialisation must return to the heart of G20 agenda

As the world’s most powerful economies gather under the Group of 20 (G20) banner, the spotlight naturally falls on urgent global challenges such as climate change, digital transformation, energy security, and mounting geopolitical tensions. These are, indeed, the defining issues of our time. Yet, buried beneath these priorities is a critical agenda item that risks being forgotten, namely industrialisation.

For much of the Global South, industrialisation is neither completed business nor a relic of a bygone era. It remains the unfinished mission, the one factor that can unlock meaningful economic growth, create jobs, drive innovation, and build resilience. Industrialisation is the engine that historically powered today’s G20 economies. It enabled technological advancement, the creation of thriving middle classes, and diversified national economies. And yet, for many developing nations, particularly in Africa, that engine remains underdeveloped or stalled.

SA, like much of the continent, stands at a crossroads. We face immense pressure to leapfrog into the green economy, embrace the digital revolution, and build resilience in the face of global market disruptions. But none of these aspirations are possible without a solid industrial foundation. Industrialisation is not a luxury for us, it is an economic necessity. Without it, we remain locked into commodity dependence, vulnerable to price shocks, unable to create jobs at the scale needed, and excluded from global value chains where real wealth is generated.

The global community, through the G20, must confront this reality. Yet, industrialisation remains alarmingly absent from core G20 discussions, often assumed to be either completed or overtaken by more modern challenges. This is a grave oversight. Without a deliberate global push for industrialisation, especially in Africa and other developing regions, we risk widening global inequality and stalling sustainable development.

SA’s position as chair of the G20 in 2025 presents a unique, historic opportunity to change this trajectory. As chair, SA carries the responsibility and the power to place industrialisation firmly back on the G20 agenda, not as a nostalgic nod to the past, but as a forward-looking strategy essential for a just global economic order.

We must lead a campaign for a global compact on industrialisation for inclusive growth, one that focuses on the following critical pillars:

• Access to sustainable and affordable industrial finance. Financing remains the biggest barrier to industrial development in the Global South. SA should champion a new G20 mechanism, perhaps within existing development banks, that are dedicated to supporting industrial projects aligned with green and inclusive growth objectives.
• Accelerated technology transfer and capacity building. Without modern technologies and skilled human capital, developing countries will never catch up. SA must push the G20 to unlock frameworks that facilitate technology sharing, innovation partnerships, and joint research ventures, enabling countries like ours to climb the industrial value chain.
• Support for green and digital industrialisation pathways. Industrialisation and climate goals are not mutually exclusive. SA must advocate for targeted G20 support that helps developing nations build green industries, produce renewable energy components, and manufacture goods needed for the global green transition, ensuring that Africa becomes a participant, not just a consumer, in the global green economy.
• Strengthen global supply chains by diversifying industrial bases. The pandemic and geopolitical shocks have shown the world that supply chains overly concentrated in a few regions are dangerously fragile. By leading a re-industrialisation drive, SA can argue for more diversified, resilient supply chains, with Africa playing a central role in global manufacturing and production.

Beyond the technical pillars, SA must make industrialisation a political priority. This means securing the support of key allies within the G20 — Brazil, India, China, Indonesia and other emerging economies — while engaging traditional industrial powers in Europe and North America. It also means ensuring that industrialisation is not merely a side issue but integrated into G20 communiqués, action plans, and financing discussions.

At home, we must also align our domestic policies to lead by example. SA should fast-track its own re-industrialisation strategy, scale up industrial financing, and invest in critical sectors such as renewable energy manufacturing, agro-processing, and value-added minerals beneficiation. We must demonstrate that industrialisation is not just a theoretical agenda but a practical, achievable priority.

The time for rhetoric is over. Industrialisation is not incompatible with the green or digital economies, it is the foundation on which these transitions must be built. Reigniting the industrial engine is not just a development issue, it is a global economic imperative. For SA, chairing the G20 is not just an opportunity but a responsibility to ensure that industrialisation, the very engine that powered G20 members to prosperity, is restored to its rightful place at the heart of the global economic agenda.

The future of billions, particularly across the African continent, depends on it. SA must lead, and the G20 must respond.

• Boshoff chairs the select committee on economic development & trade in the National Council of Provinces.