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S. Africa elected Chair of SADC

Xinhua, September 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

South Africa was elected on Wednesday as the incoming Chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

This came at the SADC's 36th summit taking place in Mbabane, Swaziland.

"We are extremely honoured to have been elected as the incoming Chairperson of SADC. This is a responsibility we take very seriously," President Jacob Zuma said.

Zuma commended and congratulated Seretse Khama Ian Khama, President of Botswana for his sterling work during his tenure.

"We appreciate his contribution to the well-being of our Community by convening several Ministerial Workshops on poverty eradication and food security, access to energy and water and illegal trade in wildlife," Zuma said.

Under Botswana's stewardship, the SADC last year adopted the Revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (2015-2020) together with the Industrialization Strategy and Roadmap, which is seen as a key milestone in the SADC's march towards regional economic integration.

"What we now need is not only to work on an implementation mechanism of these important instruments, but we also need to pay a particular focus on prioritization and sequencing of identified projects in order to have maximum regional impact," Zuma said.

For this to happen, it is critical that the SADC identifies high priority cross-border projects that are bankable and financed, he said.

"Our abundant natural resources should enable us to create regional value chains, to enhance industrialization, growth and development," said Zuma.

Critically important is a need to capacitate the SADC Secretariat to drive its regional integration agenda, he added.

The SADC chairmanship, on a one-year-term basis, rotates among the bloc's member states. South Africa will host the 37th Ordinary SADC Summit in August 2017. Endit