Regional Economic Integration and Developing Countries: The Example of South African Regional Integration - SADC

Abstract

Economic integrations among developing countries are different from the ones among more developed countries because of its aims, namely fostering economic development, industrialization and decreasing poverty. In fact, for developing countries regional integration can represent an opportunity for integrating into the global economy by minimizing market fragmentation costs. Regionalism in Africa was led by public sector organizations and it was done without the public support and the support of private sector, thus, failing to produce positive consequences. New wave of regionalism is moving away from the described approach and accentuates political integration in which progressive level of integration is not considered until all conditions were fulfilled. The paper analyses characteristics, problems and future perspectives of regional integration process among developing countries on the example of African regional integration Southern African Development Community (SADC).