By IANS
Lusaka (Zambia) : The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has said that a free trade agreement (FTA) for the region will be concluded next year as scheduled.
SADC Council of Ministers Chairperson Kabinga Pande said Saturday the SADC ministerial taskforce has already prepared a draft roadmap for a customs union as a first step toward establishing the free trade zone, according to the South African news agency BuaNews.
The extraordinary council has also discussed the structure of the proposed SADC secretariat and its aim of developing a plan that would include, among other things, the recruitment process, adherence to the quota based recruitment system and equitable gender staff representation.
SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao said the body would ensure that it channelled all its efforts towards infrastructure development in the SADC region.
Tomaz said SADC would take advantage of the support the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) with the European Union to further strengthen modalities aimed at developing infrastructure in the southern Africa.
SADC has been in existence since 1980, when it was formed as a loose alliance of nine southern African states called Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), with the main aim of coordinating development projects in order to lessen economic dependence on the then apartheid South Africa.
The transformation of the organisation from a coordinating conference into a development community (SADC) took place in 1992 in Windhoek, Namibia, giving the organisation a legal character.
The member states are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. SADC headquarters are located in Gaborone, Botswana.
The SADC vision is one of a common future, a future in a regional community that will ensure economic well-being, improving standards of living and quality of life, freedom and social justice and peace and security for the peoples of Southern Africa.