Sadc Summit meetings begin

ZIMBABWE is ready to collaborate with all Sadc member States and co-operating partners towards implementing the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISD) 2020 to 2030, a senior government official has said.

In his acceptance speech as the chairperson of the Sadc standing committee of senior officials, Foreign Affairs and International Trade ministry secretary Albert Chimbindi called for intensified trade facilitation measures to boost intra-regional trade and investment in the region.

Zimbabwe is hosting the 44th ordinary Summit of Sadc Heads of State and Government running under the theme Promoting Innovation to unlock opportunities for Sustained Economic Growth and Development towards an Industrialised Sadc.

The summit will officially commence at the New Parliament Building in Mt Hampden on August 17.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa will take over the Sadc chairmanship from Angola President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço.

The visiting heads of State and Government are expected to tour the GeoPomona Waste Management Project and the Museum of African Liberation on August 18.

However, a series of meetings will precede the main summit at various venues across Harare.

Meanwhile, Chimbindi, who assumed the chairmanship from ambassador Nazaré José Salvador from Angola, said while members had registered progress across the various pillars of the regional integration agenda, a lot still needed to be done to address the region's challenges.

"The agenda makes a clarion call for us to continue improving our transport, energy and digital infrastructure, among others, as these are essential enablers of both our integration agenda and sustainable economic development and ultimately the industrialised Sadc that we want," he said.

"We should, also, continue to lend our support to our brothers and sisters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mozambique given that a stable, peaceful and secure Sadc is key to the upliftment of the lives and livelihoods of our people. In the Sadc spirit and our mutual defence pact, an injury to one is an injury to all of us."

Chimbindi said the region faced unpredictable rainfall patterns and extreme weather conditions for which we were least responsible.

"It is in this vein that we must recommit ourselves to support regional efforts aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change and building resilience through adopting climate smart agricultural techniques and improving our disaster preparedness plans," he said.