ECONOMY
INDUSTRY AND INFRASTRUCTURE – KEYS TO A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
R ealizing the eight targets under the multifaceted Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure was going to be challenging on its own. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, global inflation and supply chain disruptions. While some SDGs target basic necessities like food, water or energy access, SDG 9 aims to provide a metric to ensure that nations everywhere can support themselves. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) calls industrialization “the driver of sustained prosperity”. Over the past several decades the OPEC Fund and UNIDO have partnered on a number of initiatives to boost local industries such as improving the fishing value chain, establishing agro-industrial processing plants, and fostering clean cooking solutions. UNIDO is the custodian of several of the industry-related indicators within the goal. We caught up with UNIDO’s Industrial Statistics and SDG 9 Reporting Unit Chief Statistician Fernando Cantu Bazaldua who explained where we stand on reaching the goal by the 2030 target, what are some of the challenges in collecting data, and where some of the bright spots might be. OPEC Fund Quarterly : Industry (in some places) seems to be on the recovery path post-COVID. Besides access to finance, what are some of the hurdles facing industry in Least Developed Countries (LDCs)? Fernando Cantu Bazaldua: Although industry in general has recovered from the COVID-19 crisis, there is a lot of heterogeneity in the sector. Some
proven recently during the COVID-19 crisis, industrial policy remains essential to support economic activity, increase productivity and enhance resilience to shocks. OFQ : Delivering mobile broadband access seems to be one of the SDG targets that is on track for 2030. For the other areas within SDG 9, what other bright points or regions have you seen in recent months? FCB: I can mention two examples of positive developments on SDG 9. First, although LDCs are not on target for meeting SDG 9 industry-related targets, there are some regional differences. Asian LDCs, in particular, have achieved considerable progress and have already reached SDG target 9.2 in terms of the level of manufacturing activity. Although greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing sector continue to increase in absolute terms, there is evidence of some decoupling between manufacturing activity and CO2 emissions. This is particularly noticeable in some regions, such as Asia and the Pacific. Still, much more needs to be done to minimize the environmental aspects of manufacturing. OFQ : From a data collection perspective, what are some of the challenges you are seeing in collecting accurate data (especially from LDCs) in order to get a better picture of progress for SDG 9?
industries are still struggling, particularly low-technology manufacturing sectors, while the hardest-hit groups, particularly youth, women, low-skilled, informal workers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), have not yet completely recovered. It is essential to maintain support and targeted policies. Other than access to finance, an important obstacle for LDCs remains insufficient or low-quality supporting infrastructure, including transport or information and communication technologies. Unavailable or insufficient skills, including digital skills, is also a challenge, particularly for promoting the development of high-tech, high- productivity industrial sectors in low- income countries. Industrial policy is still not prioritized in many cases, and for some it remains a “taboo” as industrial policies are actively discouraged. However, as Reaching all of SDG 9’s targets will be challenging for 2030, but there are some bright points By Nicholas K. Smith, OPEC Fund
FCB: There are still a lot of countries, especially LDCs, that show a limited capacity to produce statistical information in general, and industrial statistics in
32
Powered by FlippingBook