SADC talks to focus on ways to pump up trade, tourism
March 22, 2007
By Mike Cohen
Maseru - South Africa and 13 other southern African nations intend to open up airways, introduce a common visitor's visa and synchronise transport rules to bolster trade and tourism.
Members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are accelerating a programme to integrate their economies, to fuel growth and cut poverty. The members have already agreed to scrap tariffs on 85 percent of all goods by next year, and form a customs union by 2010, a common market by 2015 and a monetary union in 2016.
"We are looking at a dispensation that enables open access in terms of air transport within the region," said Remmy Makumbe, acting chief director of the group's secretariat. "We are also looking very, very closely at harmonisation of policies dealing with road usage permits and charges, third-party insurance and processing of goods through ports and airports."
The proposals will be discussed today at a meeting of SADC ministers in Maseru. Also under consideration are the introduction of multicountry visitor's visas in 2009, before the 2010 soccer World Cup, and the creation of single-stop border posts between neighbouring countries.
Click here!
The community groups South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mauritius, Angola, Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Regional integration efforts have to date met with limited success, because the trading bloc has no way of ensuring that members implement the accords they sign. Angola, Malawi, Namibia and Zambia have yet to sign a finance and investment deal that sets out the framework for establishing a regional monetary union.
SADC must also decide how to deal with several members that belong to another African trading bloc establishing its own customs union. Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Mauritius, Angola, Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo belong to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. - Bloomberg
