THE 34th session of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) extraordinary summit of heads of State and government has opened here with a focus on industrialisation.
President Lungu is expected here tomorrow to attend the summit and officially open the 56th Zimbabwe Trade Fair in Bulawayo.
The five-day summit under the theme: ‘Regional Strategy and Roadmap for Industrialisation’, opened on Saturday and was preceded by a technocrats’ meeting. The Council of Ministers meeting will be held today.
Heads of State are scheduled to arrive tomorrow in time for the summit on Wednesday.
Although the summit is expected to focus on key issues of industrialisation, it is also anticipated that it will discuss the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa in which six people were killed.
The most affected countries by the xenophobic attacks in the region are Mozambique, Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zimbabwe.
Zambia’s ambassador to Zimbabwe Ndiyoyi Mutiti said in an interview that the summit is working out strategies on how best member states can add value to its raw materials.
“SADC member states have realised that there is a lot of trade taking place and our countries also have a lot of raw materials. But that is not enough.
“We need to build on the industries that we have and ensure raw materials are developed to a level where we will have finished products so that we can enhance trade amongst ourselves and beyond,” she said.
Ms Mutiti said member states have seen the importance of enhancing industrialisation to strengthen economic growth.
“Some of the things we are talking about are, for instance, if you produce crude oil, we need to have a finished product, and we cannot talk about finished products without having the machinery, factories, the expertise and the necessary labour to be able to handle that,” Ms Mutiti said.
She said member states need to add value to raw materials if they are to be competitive.
“SADC member states are excited and looking forward to building one another as no country can work in isolation because trade is a global village.
“So, what is important is that we work together and come up with mechanisms that will be able to enhance the economies of SADC member countries at different levels,” Ms Mutiti said.
Ms Mutiti said President Lungu is, upon arrival, scheduled to have high-level talks with his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe within the ambit of SADC.
Ms Mutiti said the President will attend the summit on Wednesday and, in the evening, sheduled to address Zambians resident in Zimbabwe.
She said the President is on Thursday scheduled to fly to Bulawayo to officially open the 56th Zimbabwe Trade Fair, which will host more than 5,000 exhibitors and 70,000 spectators.
Congratulations your Excellency Mr. Robert Mugabe. All the best SADC and Africa.
Mugabe gabriel the oppresser teaching our leader hw to oppress not to develop our luvly nation for hm to continue to be in power.All he wants is to loby for all member states to support hm on withdrawng frm icc to protect hm frm been taken to court after he leaves office for hs harsh leadership.
They should have discussed South Africa behaviour only.
Time we started adding value to our resources.
If they had been wise leaders their respective countries would have been developed by now and prevented the massive emigration to South Africa. Mugabe, by obstinately preventing Zimbabwe from developing, has single-handedly contributed at least 3 million of his citizens to the already saturated illegal immigrant population of South Africa. All this talk about industrializing SADC is nothing but mere talk, it’s just another occasion for them to drink beer and console themselves with crackpot pie in the sky hallucinations. They are so in love with ‘foreign manufactured gadgets’ it’s unthinkable that they could actually realize this dream in our life time.