GABORONE, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 pandemic should fuel efforts by Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states to increase intra-regional trade, the chairperson of the regional bloc's Council of Ministers said Friday night.
Intra-regional trade in SADC countries is low, below 20 percent thereby hindering member states from realizing their economic potentials, Palamagamba Kabudi, the Tanzanian minister of foreign affairs and east African cooperation said during the virtual SADC Council of Ministers meeting.
"As we continue with our efforts to increase intra-regional trade through implementation of the SADC Protocol on Trade of 2005 and the establishment of SADC free trade area, this pandemic should fuel these efforts," he said.
Kabudi said SADC member states should now convert their industries to produce more sanitizers, more masks, more personal protective equipment (PPEs) so that "we are able to share and sell PPEs made in South Africa, made in Tanzania, made in Namibia, made in Botswana and made in Lesotho."
"We should be able now in the region to buy and sell sanitizers made in Tanzania, made in Mauritius because in Mauritius they have a lot of sugar and they produce a lot of alcohol. So let us turn this challenge into an opportunity of emboldening our industrialization and intra-trade in the region," said Kabudi.
In challenging times like this, the regional bloc should increase the cooperation among countries to rip benefits from "our integration," Kabudi said.
SADC envisages that the implementation of its Industrialization Strategy and Road Map 2015-2063 will take advantage of the increased need of medicines and medical supplies and create conducive environment for the establishment of new pharmaceutical industries and provide various incentives to the existing ones.
SADC Council of Ministers oversees the functioning and development of the SADC region, and ensures that policies are properly implemented.
The Council consists of Ministers from each Member State, usually from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economic Planning or Finance. Enditem
