STATEMENT THE SADC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY H.E. DR STERGOMENA LAWRENCE TAX ON THE OCASSION OF THE MEETING OF THE SADC COUNCIL OF MINISTERS

Transcription

1 STATEMENT OF THE SADC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY H.E. DR STERGOMENA LAWRENCE TAX ON THE OCASSION OF THE MEETING OF THE SADC COUNCIL OF MINISTERS AUGUST 2014, VICTORIA FALLS ZIMBABWE. 1

2 Honourable George Chaponda MP, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Malawi, and Chairperson of SADC Council of Ministers, Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Permanent Secretaries and Senior Officials, Deputy Executive Secretaries SADC Secretariat staff, Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great honour and privilege to address the SADC Council of Ministers almost one year after assuming my responsibility as the Executive Secretary in September I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Member States for supporting me since my assumption of duties. Allow me to thank the Government and people of the Republic of Zimbabwe for the excellent facilities and preparations for this Council Meeting and 34 th Summit of Heads of State and Government, and for the warm welcome and hospitality accorded to all of us since our arrival in this beautiful town of Victoria Falls. We highly appreciate the tremendous efforts in ensuring that the Council of Ministers meeting and the 34 th Summit of Heads of State and Government are conducted without obstacles. It is my humble honour and pleasure to welcome you, Honourable Ministers, to this session of the SADC Council of Ministers. 2

3 I wish to express my gratitude to the outgoing Chairperson of Council, Honourable Dr. George Tapathula Chaponda, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Malawi, and before him, Honourable Ephraim M. Chiume for having steered the Region to a new level since August last year, and for the immense support rendered to the Secretariat. I wish also to recognized the exemplary leadership played by Mr. George Mkondiwa, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,, the outgoing Chairperson of the Committee of senior Officials, a technical arm of the Council. The Secretariat looks forward to working closely with, and enjoying the same support from the Incoming Chairperson, Honourable Simbarashe Mubengegwi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Zimbabwe and his team. I also wish to commend the senior officials for their dedication and the job well done in preparation of the meeting of the Council. This meeting provides an opportunity and platform to take stock of the implementation of our Corporate Plan and Council Decisions during the past twelve months. I am happy to report that activities as outlined in the 2013/14 Corporate Plan and the Decisions taken by this Council in August 2013 and in April 2014 have been accomplished. Details will be presented in the course of your meeting. 3

4 As part of the process of consolidating and enhancing democracy in the region, regular, peaceful, free, fair and credible elections were held and observed by SADC, in accordance with SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic elections. In this regard credible elections were held in the Kingdom of Swaziland, Republics of Madagascar, South Africa and Malawi. Allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate the Kingdom of Swaziland for the successful elections, which led to the inauguration of a new Parliament. Furthermore, I wish to congratulate Republics of Madagascar; Malawi; and South Africa. In the course of the last quarter of 2014, elections are scheduled to take place in Republics of Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia. During the year, commendable strides have been made in the maintenance of political stability, security and democratic governance in the region. I wish to recognize the tremendous role played by the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, under the leadership of Honourable Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Chairperson of the Ministerial Committee of the Organ (MCO), for successfully addressing a number of challenges, and particularly the political impasse in Madagascar, and security challenges in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I am glad to report that concerted efforts in addressing the political and security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo are paying dividends. The situation in the DRC is increasingly becoming stable, including the demobilization and defeat of the M23 rebels, and now we are witnessing voluntary disarmament and surrender by FDLR. This momentum should be maintained, and SADC 4

5 Member States should continue to render unwavering support to the DRC to ensure sustainable political stability and security. On the economic front, the region recorded an average real GDP growth of 4.9 per cent in 2013, which was 0.1 percentage point above the 2012 average of 4.8 per cent. The inflation rate in 2013 stood at an average of 7.1 per cent. The Region also recorded national savings of 17.7 per cent of GDP in 2013, implying that foreign savings finance significant proportion of the Investment in the region. With regard to investment, the region recorded 27.7 per cent of GDP in 2013 which was a 0.4 percent improvement over 2012 level. Global competitiveness Index indicate that SADC region is making progress in improving the business environment and competitiveness in general. The revision of the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) took central stage of the activities at the Secretariat during the year. The process of revising the RISDP has been lengthy and extremely inclusive. I wish to thank the Members of the Task Force, Member States through the different Ministerial sectoral clusters, and Secretariat staff under the exemplary coordination of the Deputy Executive Secretary Regional Integration, Dr. Thembinkosi Mhlongo for their commitment and hard work. The teamwork demonstrated during the process of revising the RISDP is a clear testimony of our commitment to spearhead our regional integration agenda. 5

6 I am pleased to report that we have concluded this important assignment and the draft revised RISDP will be tabled to this Council for consideration. The revised RISDP has identified key priorities with significant importance to regional integration to be implemented within the remaining period of , and which are envisaged to produce tangible results that will accelerate regional integration for the prosperity of our nations and citizens. Following a joint meeting of the Ministers responsible for Agriculture and Food Security, and Ministers responsible for Health held in Lilolgwe Malawi, in July 2014, it is recommended that Council endorses the SADC Food and Nutrition Security Strategy for implementation in the Region. The Draft SADC Strategic Plan on Science, Technology and Innovation ( ), which emanates from the Joint Ministerial Meeting of Science, Technology and Innovation, Education and Training, is also tabled for your consideration. In the face of the challenges faced by the Region with regard to HIV and AIDS, the HIV and AIDS and TB and Malaria Report has been prepared for your approval and implementation by Member States. Honourable Ministers, It is worrisome to note that the impressive growth story of Africa in the last decade has not translated into economic diversification, commensurate jobs or faster social development. Our economies continue to be characterized by high dependence on agricultural, mineral and other natural resource-based commodity production and exports, with too little value addition and limited forward and backward linkages to other sectors of the economy. The key challenge for SADC countries is how to design and implement effective policies to promote industrialization and economic 6

7 transformation. The objective of enhancing productive and industrial competitiveness is to achieve the development of a competitive and diversified regional industrial base that optimally utilizes local resources through comprehensive value addition. The challenge of industrialization of the SADC region is to transform from a small undiversified and low technology manufacturing sector to a more diversified and medium to high technology levels of manufacturing for domestic consumption, consumption in the region through intra-sadc trade and export to global markets. In the context of SADC, this can be achieved through collective focus on building the industrial capacity necessary to produce higher value goods for trade internally, within the SADC region and globally. Despite some gains in manufacturing over the last decade, the continent is yet to reverse the de-industrialization that has defined its structural change in recent decades. In , its share of manufacturing in aggregate output declined from more than 12 per cent to around 11 per cent, in stark contract with the experience of East Asia where it remained at more than 31 per cent with labour intensive industries inducing high and sustained growth that helped lift hundreds of millions of citizens out of poverty. The results of statistical analysis show that although during the period African countries caught up with East Asian countries in terms of economic growth rate, the gap between Africa and East Asia has been widening. The regional value chain approach to industrialization was adopted in the SADC Industrial Development Policy Framework and work programme in 7

8 2012. Key intervention areas for the policy include: development of sector specific strategies for regional value chain development; promoting industrial upgrading through innovation, technology transfer and research and development; improving standards, technical regulations and quality infrastructure; developing and upgrading skills for industrialization; developing a mechanism for industrial financing; improving provision of infrastructure for industrial development and promotion of local cross border and foreign direct investment. These key intervention areas are contained in the draft RISDP. The identified key priorities in the revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), therefore presents an opportunity for unlocking our potentials to the fullest, and more so the Theme for this year, namely SADC Strategy for Economic Transformation: Leveraging the Region s Diverse Resources for Sustainable Economic and Social Development through Beneficiation and Value Addition, presents us with an opportunity to uitilise our diverse resources for the prosperity of our region and our citizens. In the same vein, I wish to reiterate the decision taken by Summit aimed at accelerating and deepening economic integration, so as to benefit more, from our integration and development agenda. may I conclude my remarks by an old age African proverb that says. A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they do not necessarily want to go, but ought to go. Being our great leaders, this is possible, and this is what will make SADC a giant among giants. 8

9 I wish you fruitful deliberations on the agenda before this august gathering. Thank you!!! Obrigada!!! Merci Beaucoup!!! Asenteni Sana!!!! 9