The Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), His Excellency Mr. Elias M Magosi, says he has embarked on paying courtesy calls on Heads of State and Government of SADC Member States to apprise them on the operations of the Secretariat, share his ideas about the Secretariat’s role and how to expedite regional integration, peace and security; and seek guidance.
The SADC Executive Secretary who has so far, paid courtesy calls on their Excellencies for the Democratic Republic Congo, Republics of Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia was speaking when Her Excellency Dr. Beatriz Antónia Manuel Morais, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Angola to the Republic of Botswana and Special Representative to SADC, paid a courtesy call on him at the SADC Secretariat on 20th April 2022. The visit, among others, aimed at exchanging views on advancing the SADC regional integration agenda. The engagement between the two sides came in the wake of the upcoming visit by the Executive Secretary to the Republic of Angola which is scheduled in the coming months.
H.E Magosi expressed delight in the cordial relationship demonstrated by the Angolan envoy to both the Secretariat and the Government of Botswana. He also acknowledged the efforts and contributions made by Angola, particularly her support to regional programmes aimed at advancing prosperity and solidarity in the SADC region.
The Executive Secretary recognised the willingness of the Republic of Angola to support the Region in its endeavour to achieve meaningful progress in the Free Trade Area under the SADC Trade Protocol, through its submission of the draft tariff offer on her accession to the SADC FTA.
The FTA is aimed at liberalising intra-regional trade in goods and services; ensuring efficient production; contributing to the improvement of the environment for domestic, cross-border and foreign investment; and enhancing economic development, diversification and industrialisation of the Region. The SADC Protocol on Trade in Services is one of the SADC legal instruments which is open for accession by the Republic of Angola.
H.E Morais thanked the Executive Secretary for the warm welcome and the support provided to the Republic of Angola, including the Embassy of Angola in Gaborone, Botswana. She highlighted the need to upscale the visibility and publicity of SADC programmes to Member States and further called for continued engagement and consultation to bolster information sharing and exchange of views.
She further applauded the existing cooperation between the SADC Secretariat and the Instituto Camões from Portugal, which focuses on the promotion of the Portuguese language which is one of the official languages of SADC, as a way of further deepening regional integration within SADC.
