Zim ready for Sadc summit

SADC SUMMIT 7 DAYS TO GOLeonard Ncube  Victoria Falls Reporter
THE forthcoming Sadc Summit of Heads of State and Government to be held in Victoria Falls next week is an opportunity for the region to deliberate on concepts of beneficiation and value addition for the region to benefit from its natural resources, Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Ambassador Joey Bimha has said.

Ambassador Bimha toured the venue which is Elephant Hills Resort yesterday accompanied by deputy director regional cooperation in the Ministry, Henry Mukonoweshuro and expressed satisfaction with preparations.

“We have everything ready for the meeting of Senior Officials which is starting on Sunday. The other infrastructure for the summit is in place and there are just a number of things which have to do with the summit that will arrive in time before the summit. I think in short all the arrangements are in place and we do not seem to have any hiccups,” he said.

Asked on the issues likely to be discussed, Ambassador Bimha said: “Well, the Summit is dependent on the items on the agenda and that agenda is set by the Secretariat in terms of implementing the decisions and directives that would have been given by the previous summit and it will be a matter of reports and discussions on the implementations of those particular issues.

“Of course the issues will be inline with the theme that we produced for the summit and we hope there will be a discussion about the theme in the Senior Officials meeting and Ministers’ Meeting and that they will make concrete recommendations to summit in terms of the whole concept of beneficiation and value addition in terms of the strategy that we could use as a region and how we are going to go about it and follow up measures to see where we have actually implemented what we would have agreed on and what will have been directed by the Heads of State and Government at Summit level,” he said.

The summit is being held under the theme: “Sadc Strategy for Economic Transformation: Leveraging the Region’s Diverse Resources for Sustainable Economic and Social Development through Beneficiation and Value Addition.”

The theme augurs well with government’s economic blueprint Zim-Asset, which seeks to champion development through harnessing local resources.

Meanwhile, workers were yesterday busy putting final touches on the marquees while some private players were also putting up banners and erecting stands.

Ambassador Bimha said accreditation of delegates will start today.

“Accreditation will start tomorrow (today) around lunch because most of the delegates for the Senior Officials meeting are going to arrive tomorrow late afternoon and we are hoping to have equipment for accreditation by afternoon tomorrow,” he said.

“It will be a continuous process for as long as the summit is on because we have Senior Officials arriving tomorrow, ministers coming in with their aids later on and then after that we will have Heads of State and Government arriving for the summit.

“So we will have accreditation going on right up to the time of the summit because probably we might have some of the Heads of State and Government arriving on the day that the summit is going to be officially opened,” added Ambassador Bimha.

Yesterday, the sub-committee on finance met for a meeting of technocrats ahead of Senior Officials’ meeting from Monday to Tuesday.
Ministers will arrive on Wednesday ahead of the Council of Ministers Meeting on August 14.

Heads of State and Government are expected to arrive on August 16, the day when the Troika Organ on Politics, Defence and Security will meet.
The closing ceremony will be held on August 18.

 

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