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Itayi Musengeyi in GABORONE, Botswana
THE Sadc Council of Ministers meeting opened here yesterday with a call for the region to implement agreed policies and programmes.
Addressing the ministers, Sadc Executive Secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax said the meeting was being held against the backdrop of the successful completion of the revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) and the Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap.
Dr Tax said while the completion of these key policies was commendable, the region’s efforts would come to naught if they were not implemented.
“These milestones are crucial in setting the region’s long-term socio-economic landscape. While appreciating the completion of the Revised RISDP and the Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap, it would be naive of us to expect tangible results thereof, unless we commit ourselves to ensure that the milestones set therein are implemented and progress is monitored effectively and continuously.
“I, therefore, call upon stakeholders to work diligently to ensure that the targets we have set ourselves in these important documents are realised for the better future of our region, in particular the betterment of Sadc citizens,” she told the meeting.
The Revised RISDP is the region’s blueprint for socio-economic development and is central to the 15-member bloc’s integration agenda.
The Industrialisation Strategy was approved at an extraordinary summit held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in April this year as the region seeks to push industrial development so that it moves away from being a producer of primary products to producing processed goods that fetch more revenue on the markets and create more jobs.
Outgoing Sadc Council of Ministers chairperson, Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said focus should now be on implementing the agreements that the ministers and the Sadc Secretariat have worked assiduously to put in place in the past year.
“In celebrating this collective achievement of our organisation (the Industrialisation Strategy), we are not oblivious to the fact that much more remains to be done in this area, the most urgent and important task being the speedy operationalisation of the strategy,” Minister Mumbengegwi said.
He said he was confident Botswana would provide leadership in ensuring the region realised its dream to become industrialised.
“I have no doubt that we will continue to work together, under the wise stewardship of Botswana, with a view to accelerating industrialisation, value addition and beneficiation for the betterment of our people and region,” Minister Mumbengegwi said.
The new chairperson of the Sadc Council of Ministers, Botswana’s Finance and Development Planning Minister Kenneth Matambo said the meeting was opportune for the region to discuss the implementation of agreed programmes and policies.
Matambo said the 35th Sadc Summit was meeting at a crucial time for the region.
He said there was urgent need for Sadc economies to broaden their industrial and economic bases to create employment and intensify the fight against poverty.
“The adoption of the Industrialisation Strategy is, therefore, a welcome move to catalyse regional co-operation and integration to ensure that we move ahead in unison as a region. Today’s meeting gives us an opportunity to address strategic issues salient to the implementation of this strategy,” Matambo said.
Matambo assured the meeting that: “I trust that we shall work hard and accelerate the implementation of the Sadc programme of action…” The two-day Council of Ministers meeting ends today and is a forerunner to the Heads of State and Government Summit which begins on Monday.
The Council of Ministers’ mandate is to prepare the agenda for Heads of State and Government.
Online Reporter