Mauritius, August 7th – 17th 2004 - Challenges like
poverty, AIDS, competitiveness and democracy-building no
longer have any borders. Today, nation-states are realizing
that these problems can only be solved through regional
and international cooperation.
Like ASEAN, CARICOM, MERCOSUR or the countless other regional
blocks that have popped up in the past two decades, SADC
(the Southern African Development Community) is taking
the shape of an southern African European Union.
Much like the EU, SADC grew out of a practical need for
intra-regional cooperation. Today it is growing into a
strong umbrella organisation that could assemble a common
Free Trade Area by 2008.
Members include Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic
of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
SADC member countries
(to include Madagascar
this year) |
This month, the heads of state of these 15 member states
met on the beautiful island of Mauritius for the annual
2004 Summit in order to plan future economic and political
cooperation programs. World Investment News was there to
cover the event and get the reactions from high level government
officials.
A new chapter
Economic growth in the southern African region has been
positive this year, growing at an average rate of 3.2%.
While countries like Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania registered
high GDP growth rates of 7%, 5.9% and 5.5% respectively,
most other southern African nations stood at an average
of 4% growth last year.
It was noted that Angola continues to
face serious post-war reconstruction challenges. “The country needs urgent
support in the areas of de-mining, social resettlement
of displaced persons and refugees and the rehabilitation
of socio-economic infrastructure” said Dr. Prega
Ramsamy, Executive Secretary of SADC.
The
Minister of Industry of Angola, Joaquim Duarte da Costa
David, agreed that the road ahead will
not be easy,
saying that regional integration “will require a
great deal of effort from Angola in terms of the development
of industrial potential and trade activity.”
“Therefore,” adds David, “privatisation
is one of the tools which we are exercising in order to
boost production and growth rates, and contribute to SADC’s
integration in the global economy”.
Regional security was also an issue and the situation
in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] was being closely
monitored, as tensions continue to threaten the peace process
that has been negotiated by President Kabila.
This year’s summit saw the adoption of SIPO, the
Strategic Indicative Plan for the Organ, which plans to
provide guidelines for the implementation of common political,
defence and security cooperation in the region. The first
test of the effectiveness of SADC’s security provisions
will therefore be in Congo DRC.
“We plan to ask for the activation of certain security
mechanisms, which is part of the SADC statute” said
the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Raymond Ramazani Baya.
Minister Ramazani nevertheless stressed that peace would
soon return to the DRC. “Even though there are still
some problems to deal with, Congo is moving towards peace,
which is essential for the greater economic development
of the nation”.
Regional peace is even more important now that Congo DRC
is implementing a major regional cooperation project called
the Western Corridor Power Project (known as Westcor) which
plans to “harness the large water resources of the
Congo River at Inga, to produce and supply electric power” for
the SADC region, said Dr.
Ramsamy, Executive Secretary of SADC. The project will comprise the construction of
4000MW hydroelectric dam, a transmission line and a telecommunications
line.
Democracy-building
This year will see numerous elections in the region. South
Africa and Malawi have already held successfully peaceful
elections, while future elections include:
The rhetoric of the conference was geared towards a strong
cultural development of democratic values.
“Real democracy has to grow from within—it
is an evolution, not a revolution” said the President
of Tanzania, Benjamin William Mkapa, objecting to the campaigns
by western powers to implement a “coca-cola democracy” that
did not respect national specificities. He stressed that
not every country is the same, and therefore we should
not impose the same system of democracy in every country,
he said.
Dr.
Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Minister of Foreign Affairs of
South Africa, agreed. “Democracy is not a ‘one-size-fits
all’ system” she proclaimed. “It must
have the same standards as in the west, yet nobody should
be able to impose the same system in every country”.
This common position illustrated a desire by SADC members
to solve the issue of democracy on their own terms, through
education, freedom of expression and freedom of association.
It was an inspiring issue that united the participants
and brought forward genuine aspirations of social development
and intra-regional support.
Meanwhile, the presence of Robert Mugabe, the President
of Zimbabwe, sent an indication that there is still much
work to be done in order to build a real sense of democracy
in certain SADC member countries.
Social challenges
AIDS and poverty are the main factors that were being
addressed at the Summit, using a combination of health,
developmental and economic programs.
“To achieve internationally set goals of eradicating
poverty, we have to achieve a GDP growth of at least 7%
per year and halve the proportion of the population that
lives on less than US$1 per day between now and 2015. We
also need an investment rate of 25-30 per cent of GDP to
reach this target” says Dr.
Ramsamy, Executive Secretary of SADC.
Leonardo
Santos Simao, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mozambique is optimistic on this issue, adding that Mozambique
is successfully winning the fight against poverty.
“We managed a 15% of decrease of poverty alleviation
between 1997 and 2003, and in some provinces there was
even a decrease of up to 18%. So it is possible to reach
our goals of poverty alleviation”.
“It can be done” adds Simao, with a satisfied
smile.
Economic goals
Competitiveness was an important issue, especially as
the SADC group of nations plans to inaugurate a Free Trade
Area by 2008. A Strategic Business Plan was adopted in
order to support small and medium-sized businesses and
encourage the competitiveness of regional products.
SADC has also developed into a strong regional negotiating
authority, leading the way towards bilateral EU-SADC and
US-SADC trade negotiations. In fact, SADC is negotiating
a protocol agreement with the European Community which
should be signed by December 2007 and enter into force
on the 1st of January, 2008.
As a united region, many SADC countries are now focused
on regional projects, which will grant their country a
greater economy of scale.
“Along with the attraction of foreign direct investment,
intra-regional trade is very important” underlined
Adsalom
Dlamini, Minister of Economic Planning of Swaziland,
who added that Swaziland is a small country that needs
to cooperate regionally in order to succeed in the global
marketplace.
Similarly, the small Kingdom of Lesotho is seeking to
piggy-back on the huge South African economy, especially
since the market will be unified by 2008. It hopes to bring
in tourists going on packages to South Africa, while offering
South African companies the opportunity to outsource certain
manufacturing services at a lower cost.
So perhaps regional trade will be a success – and
in fact the DRC is already benefiting from regional cooperation
thanks to regional funding programs. “Our participation
in SADC opens the door to the financing of major regional
projects which will have an impact on many countries” said
the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Raymond Ramazani Baya. “We therefore believe
that our regional development strategy will greatly help
the economic development of Congo”.
Meanwhile, regional programs like AGOA (the African Growth
and Opportunity Act – a program which offers preferential,
zero-tariff trade to the United States) has helped certain
countries to diversify their industry, such as Lesotho,
who has become “the largest exporter to the US textile
market of the AGOA member countries” proudly states
Timothy
T. Thahane, Minister of Finance of Lesotho.
Nevertheless, the Minister of Industry
of Mozambique, Carlos Morgado, warns that the process of
trade development
is still a slow and difficult path. “Our major constraints
are in the supply side, since there is a huge infrastructure
deficit in our region which AGOA itself cannot solve”.
“AGOA is a good program but there needs to be a
great deal of investment to make it work” adds Morgado.
Future steps
Following the return to democracy and economic growth,
Madagascar was accepted as a new member of SADC. Madagascar's
President Marc Ravalomanana attended the summit and said
that he was honoured to join the prestigious club.
Speculation fuelled that perhaps Rwanda’s membership
would be an issue that might be considered next year.
After a marathon week of meetings, the SADC Summit finished
on August 17th with a positive note.
“We are all trying to help each other and discuss
social, political and economic issues as a community. From
this we are finding new solutions to the issues that affect
us all” said Adsalom
Dlamini, Minister of Economic Planning of Swaziland.
“All in all, the Summit was conducted in very positive
atmosphere” concluded Dlamini.
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