13 Mar 2016

SADC Council of Ministers chairperson, Mr Kenneth Matambo, says it is necessary to review progress in the development of the SADC Regional Development Fund while the block continues to seek other sustainable ways of financing regional programmes.

Giving welcome remarks at the opening of the SADC Council Ministers of finance meeting in Gaborone on Saturday March 12, Mr Matambo said apart from high levels of poverty, the region also faced water and energy crisis requiring urgent attention. 

Mr Matambo said committing own resources to dealing with these issues was important while they sought the support of international cooperating partners to complement limited funds.

He said having identified industrialisation as the regions’ strategic priority for deepening integration, realisation of this goal would also require them as the Committee of Ministers of Finance and Investment to play a facilitative role in ensuring financing for industrialisation. 

Mr Matambo expressed need to begin to forge a strong relationship with African Development Bank (AfDB) than was ever the case before, more so that the bank’s focus areas were aligned to the region’s ambitions, and therefore stood to gain from a structured and regular interaction with the bank. 

“We have already established contact in Lima with the newly appointed President of the Bank, Dr Adesina, during our meeting held on the margins of the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in October 2015 and communicated our region’s position regarding the operations of the Bank,” he said.   

Meanwhile he noted that this matter would be top on the agenda of the issues to be discussed behind closed doors.

On a sad note, Minister Matambo said the meeting came at a time when the region was facing many challenges, amongst which was the devastating drought that had affected the entire SADC region and was threatening livelihoods.   ENDS