Building a region coast-to-coast…Sadc strategy for economic transformation The vision of Southern Africa as an emerging economy with infrastructure that works coast-to-coast will be closer to reality after the regional Summit that will be hosted by Zimbabwe in August. The momentum is building towards the 34th summit of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) when the leaders of 15 member states will meet in Victoria Falls with Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe chairing. The Summit is preceded by a meeting of the Council of Ministers and preparatory meetings of officials. A series of key sectoral meetings are already underway. Tourism ministers from the region met in Livingstone, Zambia, this week during the airlines’ routes conference held at Victoria Falls, and the infrastructure ministers met in Harare on Friday. While these meetings may seem routine, without resonance to a wider community, the Summit in Victoria Falls promises to be a milestone for Sadc and a life-changing event for Southern Africa. The meeting of infrastructure ministers held in Harare on Friday and chaired by the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development, Dr Obert Mpofu, was a game-changer for the region. The meeting was opened by Vice-President Joice Mujuru who told the ministers that adequate infrastructure is the “bedrock of economic development in any economy”. What’s in it for us who are not in these meetings and why should we be excited about infrastructure development? The short answer is that infrastructure touches every aspect of our daily lives, including transport, energy, information technology, water, meteorology and tourism. These sectors impact on our daily lives and how we go about our work and play, in families, in communities and in businesses. The opportunities being unpacked in this sector across a region that stretches from Namibia to Mozambique, and from South Africa all the way to the United Republic of Tanzania are almost as endless as the imagination. Imagine what you could do if there was a train from Windhoek to Beira, or from Durban to Dar es Salaam, both through Harare, of if you could fly direct to Maputo. Or if the roads were good on those routes, or if the electricity and water worked all the time in all of those places? When the infrastructure works, it lays the basis for other opportunities such as a uni-visa to ease the movement of visitors across borders, and one-stop border posts to ease the passage of goods — or a Grand Free Trade Area of 26 countries stretching along the whole of the eastern side of Africa from Egypt to South Africa. Already most Sadc member states have removed visa requirements for their own citizens to move more easily across borders, and more development would keep more people and skills at home, while generating a perspective that anywhere in the region is “home”. What the ministers were doing in Harare on Friday, and what the heads of state and government will be doing in August, is to set clear plans towards implementation of regional policy with regard to infrastructure and related priorities. (Sundaymail.co.zw)
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 15:24:38 +0000
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