His Excellency Joรฃo Manuel Gonรงalves Lourenรงo, President of the Republic of Angola and Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has acknowledged the SADCโs remarkable achievements and called for sustained progress towards the realisation of a strong, industrialised and fully integrated SADC.
H.E. President Lourenรงo highlighted SADCโs progress during his official visit to the SADC Secretariat in Gaborone, Botswana on 14 June 2024 where he was appraised on the status of SADC Regional Integration, progress on the implementation of SADC Programmes and SADC regional priorities as derived from the SADCโs regional integration blueprint, the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RIDSP) 2020-2030 and Vision 2050.
H.E. President Lourenรงo commended the SADC Secretariat for its outstanding work in implementing programmes and projects in various areas of development, integration, and peace and security in line with the RISDP 2020-2030. The SADC Chairperson also expressed gratitude to Member States for the progress made in ensuring that peace and security prevail in the region through, amongst others, their financial and personnel contributions to the SADC peacekeeping missions.
To accelerate regional integration, the SADC Chairperson emphasised the need to streamline procedures to ensure the smooth functioning of the SADC Free Trade Area (FTA) with the view to increase intra-regional trade and achieve economic development of the region.
On infrastructure development in support of regional integration, the SADC Chairperson called for the development of robust infrastructure and improvement of already existing infrastructure to allow the interconnectedness among SADC Member States for them to derive the full benefits of regional integration and shared prosperity.
He cited the signing of the Lobito Corridor by the Governments of Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia as a classic example of cooperation among SADC Member States to facilitate the movement of goods to increase trade and boost economies of the three countries.
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