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Roundup: Southern Africa Gears up Towards Integration
The summit of heads of state and government of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Malawi has voiced a renewed commitment to deepening regional integration so as to accelerate economic growth and face up to challenges such as poverty, AIDS and globalization.
It is worthy to note that at the three-day summit which ended here Tuesday, leaders of member states signed five new protocols covering topics ranging from defense, control of arms to fisheries, anti-corruption and information cooperation, thus bringing the number of protocols in SADC to 15.
"We attach great significance to protocols as they are at the core of our community building efforts," said SADC Executive Secretary Prega Ramsamy, adding that they provide legal, policy and institutional framework for deepening cooperation and integration.
The signing of the Protocol on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation is of special significance, as it signifies the formal approval of the Organ on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation by all member states.
According to the protocol, the defense arm of the bloc will no longer be able to act unilaterally as before, and its decision would have to be endorsed by regional leaders before being implemented, which will give more teeth to the organ in dealing with crisis.
Meanwhile, the summit unanimously chose Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano as the new chairman of the Organ of the Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation.
Besides, Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa was also elected deputy chairman of the organ, thus completing the Troika, a collective leadership which includes former SADC Chairman and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
The moves are hailed as "a concrete step" taken by the organization toward effectively coping with regional crisis and reaching its goal of becoming a vibrant economic and political bloc and a key player in the world economic arena.
GREAT POTENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT
SADC was launched by nine front-line countries in 1980 as a coordinating conference. In August 1992, ten heads of state or government in the region gathered in Windhoek, Namibia, and signed the declaration and treaty to formally establish SADC, aimed at realizing economic liberalization and integrated development of the economies of the region.
With a combined population of over 190 million and combined GDP of 219 billion U.S. dollars in 2000, SADC occupies an area of about 9.3 million square kilometers with enormous agricultural resources. It produces most of the world's gold, diamonds and copper and has large quantities of uranium, nickel and cobalt.
"It is clear that SADC has the potential to achieve accelerated growth in GDP," said Malawian Vice President Justin Malewezi.
Since its establishment, SADC has made substantial achievements in coordinating economic development and pooling efforts to prevent and end conflicts in the region.
Official statistics indicate that the region has achieved positive GDP growth since 1995. In the year 2000, the average growth rate of the region reached 3.4 percent, almost double that of 1999 which stood at 1.8 percent.
On the political front, the region generally continues to enjoy political stability and the consolidation of democracy, respect for law as well as peace and stability.
HARSH REALITY
But member states still face major obstacles in the integration and economic unity of the region, because of the great disparities between the countries involved, as well as the civil wars in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which are economically crippling and holding back growth in the region.
The region is also pestered with other problems such as poverty, the spreading of HIV/AIDS, huge external debt and a drop in foreign direct investment.
Official statistics indicate that about 76 million people of the region's population are still living in extreme poverty, and the estimated total number of AIDS cases in the region is up to 4 million, leaving an estimated 6 million HIV-positive.
In addition, the total of external debt in the region is estimated to stand at more than 79 billion U.S. dollars, and the flow of foreign direct investment dropped from 5.3 billion dollars in 1999 to 3.9 billion dollars in 2000.
COMMUNITY BUILDING EFFORTS
The most significant step toward economic integration should be the implementation of the SADC Trade Protocol, which aims to create a free trade zone to increase trade among its members to 35 percent by 2004 from the current 25 percent and to liberalize 85 percent of trade within the zone by 2008.
Up to date, all the 11 signatory countries have ratified the protocol, with South Africa having first announced that it will drop tariffs by over 76 percent of products in its trade with other SADC member countries from September this year.
Trailing South Africa are Mauritius, which will open up 51 percent of its market by September, Malawi, 41 percent, and Zimbabwe, 30 percent.
SADC officials are confident that the implementation of the Trade Protocol will greatly spur the development of manufacturing in all SADC countries.
To improve the efficiency of the organization, SADC has embarked on a path of centralization by streamlining 19 of its sectors into four directorates over a period of two years. On August 2, 2001, the Directorate on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment was established.
"This institution will contribute greatly to the implementation of the Trade Protocol, which is the cornerstone of our regional economic integration," said Hidipo Hamutenya, minister of Trade and Industry of Namibia.
Substantial progress has also been made in the areas of finance and investment. Last month, finance ministers from member countries reached an agreement in Pretoria, South Africa, on the principles along which macro-economic convergence in the region should be pursued.
The agreement will lay the basis for a protocol on finance and investment, which "will be very strategic to regional integration, " said Ramsamy.
More often than before, member countries have sought to take coordinated action in resolving major issues of the region such as the civil wars in Angola and the DRC where SADC has taken concrete actions to promote peace process.
Ramsamy said that to solve the problems facing the region, centralized approach is much needed. "We need to master our resources, our energies to a few priority areas but to do them well."
The success of SADC lies in integration, said Salim Ahmend Salim, secretary-general of the Organization of African Unity, who attended the SADC summit here.
"A successful SADC will become a major driving force for the development of Africa, and an important part of the African Union, " Salim said.
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