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Prosper Ndlovu Business Editor
A FACILITY Support Unit (FSU) has been set up within the Sadc secretariat to facilitate implementation of the Sadc Trade Related Facility (TRF), established through a contribution agreement between the European Union (EU) and Sadc. Located at the Masa Centre in Gaborone, the FSU will provide technical support to member states in implementing their commitments under the Sadc protocol on trade and the economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the EU.
A new Sadc report indicates operations of the TRF commenced last month under the 32 million euro funding by the EU covering two windows.
These are the STP window, which seeks to ensure a higher level of compliance and implementation of commitments undertaken by Sadc member states under the protocol on trade and the EPA window that seeks to facilitate effective implementation and monitoring of the Sadc-EU EPA with a view to enhance its potential benefits, particularly in terms of improved market access.
“Areas of interventions include customs co-operation and trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, industrial development, trade in services, trade promotion and development, trade remedies and trade-related adjustment support,” said Sadc.
It said the support to member states would be in the form of financial incentives paid after achievement of clearly identified milestones and based on a country implementation plan and detailed project activities and related costs.
“Generally, the TRF will seek to address implementation challenges faced by Sadc member states in their trade and industrial development agenda so as to increase intra-Sadc and international trade.
“It will complement other regional integration programmes such as the project preparation and development facility (PPDF) and the regional economic integration support (REIS),” said Sadc.
The PPDF seeks to bridge gaps in infrastructure provision aimed at improving competitiveness and facilitate regional and international trade, while REIS aims to build regional level capacity to enhance regional economic integration.
The TRF is specifically targeted at national level implementation challenges and constraints, which are identified by member states themselves through their national indicative programmes.
The projects and programmes to be supported should be coherent with Sadc’s integration strategy and member states’ national development plans, policies and strategies.
President Mugabe, who chairs Sadc and AU, recently spoke on the need for speedy integration of African economies to stimulate trade partnerships and attract investment that will unlock the continent’s development potential towards poverty alleviation.
In his acceptance speech as AU chair in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia recently, the President said addressing physical infrastructure and interconnectedness issues in Africa was critical for economic development.
“During my tenure as chair, I will deliberately provoke your thoughts to pay special attention to issues of infrastructure, value addition and beneficiation, agriculture and climate change in the context of African development,” said President Mugabe.
He said the continent’s roads, rail, air and sea transport networks, were not sufficiently developed to stimulate intra-African trade, investment and tourism.
“We need to continue, and perhaps redouble, our current collective efforts in this sector. The road and power projects that we’re developing are a positive step in our quest to improve African infrastructure.
“We therefore, need to work and co-ordinate closely with those partners who are committed to developing our infrastructure as envisaged in our Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA),” said the President.
Online Reporter