RECOGNISING the importance of manufacturing to development, economic growth and job creation, the Commonwealth Secretariat launched ‘A Policymaker’s Guide to Manufacturing 4.0’ and a pilot implementation programme on digital industrial development in Mauritius.

According to the Commonwealth, this digital-first guide has been developed to assist Commonwealth policymakers, especially those in the least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS), to understand the transformative impact of new digital technologies on their industrial development and how to develop policy settings to take advantage of new and emerging opportunities, while addressing potential barriers along the way.

The guide was launched at the 2022 National Manufacturing Summit in Mauritius, where the Commonwealth Connectivity Agenda (CCA) also launched a pilot to implement the Guide with the Mauritius Ministry of Industrial Development, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Cooperatives. This implementation will provide practical lessons on the opportunities and challenges facing small island developing states in their digital industrial development.

Ahead of the launch of the policy guide, Commonwealth Secretary-General, Patricia Scotland, KC said:
“I am confident that policymakers across the Commonwealth will find this Guide informative and useful in understanding and harnessing new technologies and innovations to advance their digital industrial development. These advances create fresh opportunities to develop new and improved products, implement more efficient processes, and achieve more agile and resilient supply chains. They also highlight the need to address barriers and challenges that may hinder the effective adoption and use of these innovations to ensure businesses across the Commonwealth remain competitive and the private sector can also drive long-term, sustainable economic growth and job creation.”

Speaking about the value of this policy guide to Mauritius, Soomilduth Bholah, Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives in Mauritius, said:
“In our endeavour to make a successful leap to the sphere of Industry 4.0, assistance has been sought from the Commonwealth Secretariat for a project on enhancing the capabilities of manufacturing enterprises to adopt high-end technology.”

New and emerging technologies and processes are changing and reshaping the ways in which firms manufacture products, the business models they adopt and how they continue to innovate going forward. Digital technologies are increasingly applied to, and integrated with, industrial manufacturing. This changes the nature of the industry and challenges the traditional interpretation of what constitutes industrial development.

The CCA engaged leading experts in advanced manufacturing and industrial policy from across the Commonwealth in the production of this Guide and stands ready to assist Commonwealth member countries in further developing their knowledge of modern manufacturing and in implementing digital industrial policies. The Mauritius pilot programme is a step towards this goal.