Roundup: Southern African leaders meet in Botswana for advancing industrialization

Regional industrialization tops the agenda of the annual summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) kicked off Monday in Botswana's capital city Gaborone.

Presidents and senior government officials from 15 SADC member states are attending the 35th Ordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government from August 17 to 18 held under the theme "Accelerating Industrialization of SADC Economies, Through Transformation of Natural Endowment and Improved Human Capital."

The head of states focus on infrastructure, technology, finance with a private sector playing a major role, said the Executive Secretary of SADC Screteriat Lawrence Tax at the opening ceremony.

She further applauded SADC for coming up industrialization as it will unlock opportunity contributing not only to the SADC economy but Africa as a whole.

Sources said the meeting will deliberate on a wide range of issues, particularly on how southern Africa could fully benefit from its vast natural resources and improvement of the livelihood of its citizens. Discussions will mainly focus on advancing the industrialization agenda of the region.

The regional Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap of SADC was approved by the SADC Summit in Harare, Zimbabwe in April. "Much more remains to be done in this area, the most urgent and important task being the speedy operationalization of the strategy," said Zimbabwean Minister of Foreign Affairs Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, who was also the outgoing Chairperson of the SADC Council of Ministers, at the council meeting prior to the summit.

A SADC extra-ordinary summit held in Zimbabwe's Harare this April adopted the 48-year strategy to spur industrialization in the region.

The industrialization strategy will be implemented in three phases from 2015 to 2063 and is aimed at repositioning SADC, endowed with vast natural resources, as a net exporter of processed products.

The leaders would review key achievements including the SADC industrialization strategy and roadmap, operationalization of the SADC project preparation and development facility, and the launch of the tripartite free trade area, said Remigious Makumbe, the SADC director of infrastructure and services prior to the summit.

The summit is expected to deliberate on the current political and socio-economic situation, issues on HIV and AIDS, gender development, peace and security with focus on the launch of negotiations for Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), he said.

As a measure to tackle trade protectionism, African Union (AU) launched its Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) negotiations, seeking to establish free movement of goods and services among African states.

The AU has set 2017 as the time for the implementation of CFTA, under which African states are expected to reduce trade barriers among themselves by drastically reducing export and import duties and waiving visa requirements in some cases.

The CFTA negotiations came just days after the signing of a Tripartite Free Trade Agreement (TFTA) that covers more than 650 million people in 26 countries with combined gross domestic product amounting to 60 percent of Africa's total. TFTA will become effective once parliaments had adopted it.

Another issue is the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP).

RISDP is a comprehensive development and implementation framework guiding the Regional Integration agenda of the SADC over a period of fifteen years (2005-2020).

The ultimate objective of the plan is to deepen integration in the region with a view to accelerate poverty eradication and the attainment of other economic and non-economic development goals.

Established in 1992, SADC is an inter-governmental organization whose goal is to promote sustainable and equitable economic growth and socio-economic development through efficient productive systems, deeper cooperation and integration, good governance and durable peace and security among 15 Southern African member states. Endit