Her Excellency Ms. Maria Soledad Cordova de Valencia, Ambassador of Ecuador based in the Republic of South Africa on 11 September, 2017, presented her Letters of Credence to the SADC Executive Secretary, Her Excellency Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax. The two discussed potential areas of co-operation between the Government of Ecuador and the SADC Region.
Ambassador Cordova de Valencia said the Government of Ecuador is seeking to strengthen South South cooperation, particularly in four main areas of cooperation namely; Industrialization, Tourism, Mining and Agriculture. She highlighted that her government has made significant strides in the areas of Health, Education and Infrastructure, adding that the Government of Ecuador is willing to share its experiences with the SADC Region. She cited the proposal to operationalise the SADC University of Transformation in the Kingdom of Swaziland as one of the SADC initiatives that could be of interest to the Government of Ecuador.
On her part, the SADC Executive Secretary Her Excellency Dr. Tax welcomed the Ecuador Ambassador and congratulated her for her appointment. She thanked the Government of Ecuador for showing interest to cooperate with the SADC region in areas of mutual interest. Dr. Tax pointed out that SADC has prioritized four main areas namely: Industrialization and market integration; infrastructure development; peace and security; and programmes of regional integration importance. These are in line with proposed areas of cooperation between SADC and Ecuador.
The two Parties agreed to further engage and concretize areas of cooperation for the mutual benefit of the peoples of both the SADC Region and Ecuador.
The Ambassador was accompanied by Ms. Marcela Rivadeneira, First Secretary at the Embassy of Ecuador in South Africa.
