Africa-Press – Namibia. THE recently appointed Executive Secretary (ES) of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Elias Mpedi Magosi, met with President Hage Geingob on Thursday to discuss a strategic plan for expediting integration among SADC member states, which he considers to be “a bit slow”.
According to Magosi, integration among SADC member states is crucial to allow for the free movement of goods in the region, which is an important objective.
This, he stated, can be fast-tracked through the implementation of the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), which he considers to be a blueprint for SADC’s Vision 2050. Furthermore, he stated that there is also a need to harmonise the laws of the respective SADC member states to encourage free movement.
“It is not something that happens overnight. It is not an event. It’s a process that requires engagement with all the different member states. So that when we say ‘free movement of goods, you really mean free movement of goods, and it’s seamless across the member states,” Magosi added.
He stated that it is also necessary to identify obstacles that hinder development in SADC countries. He pointed out that Covid-19 was one of those obstacles and now that the pandemic is nearly over, the region’s experience should be analysed by looking at the response to the pandemic and what was learned.
This notion was also echoed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who stated that the pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities in Namibia’s health, education and transport sectors.
“You know how we suffered because when the Covid pandemic came, everybody was in a shock and the first thing was that everybody closed their borders and you saw the impact in the region,” Nandi-Ndaitwah added.
She also reiterated the importance of integration, stating that it should be synonymous with the free movement of services so that member states can provide quality services to citizens.
“Integration is important, in the sense that it is what will really bring meaning to the SADC citizens, knowing also that this is one of the regions that has experienced a war of liberation and if you look back, the SADC we are having today started when there was a collaboration to support the liberation struggle,” Nandi-Ndaitwah stated.
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