adminLovemore Dube in Victoria Falls
Sadc ministers responsible for transport and meteorological services are meeting in Victoria Falls today to discuss among other issues progress made in the opening up of the regional skies to competition.The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development Mr Munesushe Munodawafa said the meeting was initially supposed to be held in Angola but due to a clash with another high profile event, Zimbabwe was asked to come in two months ago and rescue the meeting.
He said Sadc was impressed with the country’s good hosting of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation general assembly in August.
“It was supposed to be in Angola. It was discovered that the dates were coinciding with another high profile event there and then Sadc asked us to host the meeting on the strength of our excellent hosting of the UNWTO,” said Mr Munodawafa.
He said the regional meeting would start on Wednesday but would be preceded by one for ministers, their deputies and other high ranking ministry officials.
“The Sadc meeting starts on Wednesday 16 October, but will be preceded by one for ministers which starts tomorrow. All of them have confirmed their participation. We are looking at ministers and representatives from the region’s ministries of transport, aviation, railways, roads and maritime including meteorology departments from the region,” said Mr Munodawafa.
He said the meeting was a routine one and would also review resolutions passed in Togo. Mr Munodawafa said he was happy that there were now over 15 airlines flying into Zimbabwe which included South African Express, South African Airways, South African Airlink, Tagg of Angola, Botswana Airlines, KLM, EgyptAir, Emirates, Kenyan Airways, LAM and Zambian Airways.
He said as a region there was also need for greater co-operation within the railways and that the secretariat of the Southern African Railways Co-operation like most of the other countries’ representatives was already in the country and ready to start exchanging notes on the future of the sector.
Another key factor of the meeting would be encouraging member states to go for ISO certification in meteorological services where six countries have by now attained that status with Zimbabwe among them.
The other countries are Mauritius, Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Online Reporter