VICTORIA, Seychelles, August 22, 2017/APO: The President of Seychelles, Danny Faure, has urged 15 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional block to accept into their fold the dinky islands of the Comoros located near Mozambique and Tanzania in the Indian ocean as their 16th member State.
Following two days of deliberations during the 37th SADC Summit for Heads of States and Government, numerous strategic decisions have emerged expecting to lead to new actions for the benefit of member states of the region.
During the meetings, President Danny Faure made several interventions focusing on priority areas of strong interest to Seychelles. These include supporting the admission of the Union of Comoros in SADC, HIV/AIDS, the drugs scourge, and the industrilisation process of the region to bolster its economic growth.
The volcanic Comoros Islands located in the Mozambique Channel cover a total area of 2361 km²,.They include five tiny islands of Ngazija, Anzwani, Mwali, Mahori and Pamadzi. First traces of inhabiting the archipelago date back to the 6th century, where a number of peoples crossed over and mixed, including those of Bantu origins, Malagasy, Indonesian, Arab, Portuguese, French and Indian.
The islands formed with Zanzibar, Pemba, Lamu, and the towns along the Kenyan and Tanzanian coast were united and prosperous areas of the Swahili culture which historically lived by trading in ivory and other African goods destined for markets in the Middle East and India.
President Danny Faure of Seychelles.
Current members of the SADC regional block include Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius and Mozambique. Other members include Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
On the first day of the Summit Heads of States discussed the socio-economic situation in the region, the performance of the SADC economy, gender and development, and food security in the region.
The final day of the Summit saw further discussions on important decisions relating to the admission of the Union of Comoros into the SADC Family, African Union Institutional Reforms, and as a conclusion the Summit’s Communique was unanimously adopted.
At this gathering Namibia was elected Vice-Chair of SADC and declared that they will host the Summit in 2018.
At the earlier summit held in Swaziland in March, 2017, SADC heads of State adopted a monetised Action Plan for the Implementation of the SADC industrialization Strategy. The action plan looked at a budget of about US$112 million. Adoption of the plan moved the region a step closer to industrialization, officials said.
The strategy was reportedly built on three pillars – industrialization and market integration; infrastructure development; peace and security. The Summit considered a report by the Ministerial Taskforce on Regional Integration.
