SADC to discuss free market issue

A LARGE Namibian Government delegation will attend this year’s annual Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit taking place in Maseru, Lesotho, this week.

Topics on the agenda include a regional Free Market Area by 2008, the preparation for a SADC Customs Union by 2010, and a Monetary Union with one single regional currency by 2016. The summit is preceded by a Council of Ministers meeting tomorrow and Wednesday to prepare resolutions and documents for the summit, which all SADC heads of state and government will attend on Thursday and Friday, including President Hifikepunye Pohamba.The President of Seychelles will attend as an observer as the island state has asked to rejoin SADC.Seychelles cancelled its membership a few years ago.Another new member is Madagascar.According to Dr Tomaz Salomao, Executive Secretary of SADC, the reports of the outgoing Chair of the Summit – Botswana – and the Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation – President Pohamba – will be discussed.Lesotho will take over the chairmanship of SADC for one year.Briefing media at the SADC headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana, last week, Salomao said each of the 14 member countries would also submit progress reports on their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the setting up of the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek.”Negotiations are also in progress for the funding of a feasibility study on transferring water from the Congo Basin to the water-scarce countries in the SADC Region,” Salomao said at the briefing.”The development of a Regional Strategic Water Infrastructure Development Programme is in progress,” he added.SADC remains the most stable region in Africa.The average economic growth in the region came to five per cent in 2005 despite disparities among member states.Angola achieved the highest real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 15,6 per cent, followed by Botswana at 8,3 per cent, Mozambique with 7,7 per cent and Tanzania, 6,9 per cent, while South Africa achieved about five per cent.The average regional growth rate is projected to expand to six per cent this year.The majority of SADC’s more than 230 million citizens live below the poverty line, however, aggravated by cycles of drought, the debilitating effects of the HIV-AIDS pandemic, outbreaks of malaria and other communicable diseases.”The considerable efforts by SADC countries to reduce poverty and improve human development remain greatly challenged as the gains achieved so far are inconsistent with the minimum MDG targets of reaching the seven per cent economic growth if developing countries are to halve poverty by 2015,” Salomao said.The summit is preceded by a Council of Ministers meeting tomorrow and Wednesday to prepare resolutions and documents for the summit, which all SADC heads of state and government will attend on Thursday and Friday, including President Hifikepunye Pohamba.The President of Seychelles will attend as an observer as the island state has asked to rejoin SADC.Seychelles cancelled its membership a few years ago.Another new member is Madagascar.According to Dr Tomaz Salomao, Executive Secretary of SADC, the reports of the outgoing Chair of the Summit – Botswana – and the Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation – President Pohamba – will be discussed.Lesotho will take over the chairmanship of SADC for one year.Briefing media at the SADC headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana, last week, Salomao said each of the 14 member countries would also submit progress reports on their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the setting up of the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek.”Negotiations are also in progress for the funding of a feasibility study on transferring water from the Congo Basin to the water-scarce countries in the SADC Region,” Salomao said at the briefing.”The development of a Regional Strategic Water Infrastructure Development Programme is in progress,” he added.SADC remains the most stable region in Africa.The average economic growth in the region came to five per cent in 2005 despite disparities among member states.Angola achieved the highest real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 15,6 per cent, followed by Botswana at 8,3 per cent, Mozambique with 7,7 per cent and Tanzania, 6,9 per cent, while South Africa achieved about five per cent.The average regional growth rate is projected to expand to six per cent this year.The majority of SADC’s more than 230 million citizens live below the poverty line, however, aggravated by cycles of drought, the debilitating effects of the HIV-AIDS pandemic, outbreaks of malaria and other communicable diseases.”The considerable efforts by SADC countries to reduce poverty and improve human development remain greatly challenged as the gains achieved so far are inconsistent with the minimum MDG targets of reaching the seven per cent economic growth if developing countries are to halve poverty by 2015,” Salomao said.