Sadc meetings going on well

Mukudzei Chingwere–Herald Reporter 

The ongoing SADC officials meetings, precursors of the upcoming full Summit of Heads of State and Government, in Zimbabwe are going very well and Zimbabwe has surpassed the standards required to host the regional bloc, the SADC secretariat has noted.

SADC Secretariat head of communications and public relations Ms Barbara Lopi spoke to journalists at the New Parliament building in Mt Hampden yesterday to keep everyone briefed on progress. 

Zimbabwe successfully hosted the SADC Industrialisation Week last week and is currently hosting the Senior Officials and Finance Committee Meeting at the New Parliament Building that ends tomorrow.

The process of Zimbabwe taking over the SADC Chair started on Thursday with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Permanent Secretary Ambassador Albert Chimbindi taking over as the chair of the SADC Standing Committee of Senior Officials.

Next week, the SADC Council of Ministers Meeting from August 13 – 14 will be held at the New Parliament Building, followed by the SADC and BADEA Investment Forum on August 14, at the Harare International Conference Centre.

President Mnangagwa will preside over the SADC Public Lecture on August 15 at the University of Zimbabwe Diamond Lecture Theatre.

The SADC Organ Troika Ministerial Committee and SADC Organ Troika Summit on August 16, will be the last on the agenda before the full Summit. Both meetings will be held at the New Parliament Building.

“These meetings are technical committee meetings that will review documents that will be presented and considered by the SADC Heads of State and Government during the summit,” said Ms Lopi. 

“As you know the SADC Summit is the policy-making body of all SADC programmes and decisions. SADC has minimum standards that are to be put in place when hosting any SADC meetings including the SADC Summit and these minimum standards have been surpassed in Zimbabwe’s preparations. So, we are very happy with the preparations everything so far is going smoothly,” said Ms Lopi.

This year’s Summit will be running under the theme: “Promoting Innovation to unlock opportunities for sustained economic growth and development towards an Industrialised SADC.”