SADC pledges to speed up economic integration

MASERU – A 14-nation southern Africa summit closed late on Friday with a pledge to speed up regional economical integration, even as leaders expressed concern about crisis-plagued member-state Zimbabwe.

Leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) signed a protocol to accelerate integration toward a regional free trade zone with a common customs union, market, and universal currency within the next 12 years. “This protocol seeks to foster harmonisation of the financial and investment policies of the state parties…through facilitation of regional integration,” the text read.Among the stated goals are the elimination of tariffs on 85 per cent of all goods within two years, and the creation a free-trade zone by 2008.The 14 nations also aim to create a united customs union by 2010, followed by a common market by 2015, a monetary union by 2016 and a single currency by 2018.Newly appointed SADC Chairman Pakalitha Mosisili, Prime Minister of Lesotho, told reporters at a press conference that the region’s leaders “felt that the matter of economic integration in the region is lagging behind.””We decided it is high time that we should do something about that,” he said, adding that finance ministers had been tasked with drawing up a plan to accelerate the process.Angola and Zimbabwe did not sign Friday’s protocol, but SADC officials said the omission was procedural, noting that some countries needed prior approval from parliament.Speaking of Zimbabwe, Mosisili said: “I can assure you that the situation in that country is of concern to SADC.””Zimbabwe was the second-strongest economy in the community, and for the economy to decline to that level is of major concern for us,” he said.Once the breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe has seen its economy contract by more than a third over the last seven years and inflation soar to 1 200 per cent – the highest in the world outside a war zone.Critics partially blame President Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reform programme for the country’s economic woes.Asked why the 82-year-old Mugabe arrived almost two hours later than other state leaders for the summit and then left early, Mosisili said: “President Mugabe is not a young man.The old man is slowing down.”Nampa-AFP”This protocol seeks to foster harmonisation of the financial and investment policies of the state parties…through facilitation of regional integration,” the text read.Among the stated goals are the elimination of tariffs on 85 per cent of all goods within two years, and the creation a free-trade zone by 2008.The 14 nations also aim to create a united customs union by 2010, followed by a common market by 2015, a monetary union by 2016 and a single currency by 2018.Newly appointed SADC Chairman Pakalitha Mosisili, Prime Minister of Lesotho, told reporters at a press conference that the region’s leaders “felt that the matter of economic integration in the region is lagging behind.””We decided it is high time that we should do something about that,” he said, adding that finance ministers had been tasked with drawing up a plan to accelerate the process.Angola and Zimbabwe did not sign Friday’s protocol, but SADC officials said the omission was procedural, noting that some countries needed prior approval from parliament.Speaking of Zimbabwe, Mosisili said: “I can assure you that the situation in that country is of concern to SADC.””Zimbabwe was the second-strongest economy in the community, and for the economy to decline to that level is of major concern for us,” he said.Once the breadbasket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe has seen its economy contract by more than a third over the last seven years and inflation soar to 1 200 per cent – the highest in the world outside a war zone.Critics partially blame President Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reform programme for the country’s economic woes.Asked why the 82-year-old Mugabe arrived almost two hours later than other state leaders for the summit and then left early, Mosisili said: “President Mugabe is not a young man.The old man is slowing down.”Nampa-AFP