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Lloyd Gumbo Senior Reporter
SADC countries must prioritise infrastructure development if they are to achieve sustainable socio-economic development in the region, Vice President Joice Mujuru has said.
The Vice President said as she officially opened a meeting of the sadc ministers responsible for infrastructure development in Harare yesterday.
The meeting was to consider the regional bloc’s draft declaration on regional infrastructure development where a number of proposed innovations that would improve regional integration if adopted by the sadc Summit set for Victoria Falls in August this year were proposed.
“It is increasingly apparent that adequate infrastructure is the bedrock of economic development in any economy,” said VP Mujuru. “It is, therefore, not surprising that sadc has maintained its emphasis on infrastructure development as a tool for regional integration and addressing the overarching objective of poverty reduction.
“Distinguished delegates as you are aware, infrastructure is a catalyst for regional integration, production and trade expansion. Several studies in the region have established that one of the major constraints to regional trade growth is poor infrastructure.”
VP Mujuru said it was gratifying that sadc made provision for Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) and the Infrastructure Development Masters Plan that provided States with direction towards achieving regional development.
She said it was important that according to the Mid Term Review, the sadc region had made significant progress in implementing the RISDP despite limited financial and technical resources.
VP Mujuru implored the sadc ministers to ensure that there was infrastructure development in all sectors of the economy, including tourism, energy and water.
“My challenge to you as ministers responsible for infrastructure is to provide adequate infrastructure such as roads, airports and power to support development of tourism,” she said.
“This challenge must be confronted head-on, working closely with our financial technical experts who should assist with the mobilisation of sustainable long-term funding, not forgetting utilisation of our own local natural resources.”
Speaking at the same occasion, sadc executive secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax, said the regional bloc needed to double its efforts to deploy regional infrastructure to facilitate value addition, deepening regional integration.
“The provision of integrated, efficient and cost effective infrastructure networks to address the region’s supply side constraints and reduction of the cost of doing business is paramount,” she said.
“The provision of infrastructure is the surest way of ensuring sustainable regional economic development, community building and trade facilitation.”
In his remarks, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Obert Mpofu said the competitiveness of the sadc region was to a large extent anchored on joint action and pooling of available resources to achieve the comprehensive development of infrastructure as envisaged in sadc Infrastructure Vision 2027.
“Notwithstanding the current levels of achievement in infrastructural interconnectivity, the sadc region is still confronted by a number of challenges with regard to infrastructure availability, delivery, access and price,” said Minister Mpofu.
He said Zimbabwe was committed to fulfilling its regional mandate, especially on the regional trade corridors like the North-South and South-East corridors as evidenced by road infrastructural projects being undertaken along the Plumtree-Bulawayo-Mutare Highway as well as the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu corridor.
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