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Front Page SADC or EAC: Which way now?By Sukhdev Chhatbar,INTERNEWS
Tanzania’s signing of the recent East African Community’s Customs Protocol will not affect her participation in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), according to the 14-nation regional bloc’s Executive Secretary, Prega Ramsamy. The 1999-revived EAC brings together Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. He, however, stated that one country cannot belong to two customs unions, which means that Tanzania will have to decide what to do next when SADC starts its own customs in 2010. "There are no contradictions…there is no harm that a member (SADC) country moves at different speed. But no country can belong to two customs union," he said when asked to clarify what will be the situation of Tanzania, which is a member of both the EAC and the SADC. Ramsamy was in Arusha for the SADC Council of Ministers and the launch of the ambitious 15-year SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP). Tanzania’s President Benjamin Mkapa, who is also the chairman of SADC, launched the plan on March 12. The RISDP sets the priorities, policies and strategies for achieving the long-term goals of SADC. It will serve to guide members, institutions, stakeholders and international cooperating partners in the process of deepening integration to turn the Community’s vision into a reality. The SADC vision is that of a common future, a future within a regional community. The SADC executive secretary said the regional bloc’s ultimate goal is the continent’s aspiration for the United States of Africa under the auspices of African Union. "I don’t see any contradictions in Tanzania’s position in the EAC and SADC," said Tanzania’s minister for foreign affairs and international co-operation, Jakaya Kikwete. "There is no duplication or overlapping," he added. SADC envisages establishing Free Trade Area by 2008 and a Common Market by 2012. Ramsamy says that Free Trade Area would intensify intra-trade among members, and attract new investments. Regarding the economy, SADC members demonstrated an accelerated 3.2 per cent growth rate during 2002, despite a slow down both in the African and in the global economies experienced in the previous two years." This growth rate compares positively to 2.7 per cent achieved in 2001." Estimates for 2003 indicate that growth rate will not exceed three per cent even though countries like Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania had growth rates of between 5.5 per cent and 7 per cent. "Improvements in GDP growth rate of the SADC economies are attributed, amongst other things, to dividends associated with peace, increased oil output in Angola and improved management of macroeconomic polices in most member states," Ramsamy said. On AIDS, the regional bloc aims to cut down AIDS pandemic among infants by 50 per cent in the year 2010. Southern Africa is currently the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It is estimated that approximately 70 percent of people living with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa. In Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, at least 18 percent of the adult population is infected with HIV. Prevalence is especially high in cross-border areas with high mobility among truck drivers, migrant workers, and commercial sex workers, according to USAID stastics. The SADC member states are: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Angola, Lesotho, Malawi and Mauritius. Others are: Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. However, Seychelles, has said it will pull out of the regional grouping. The combined population of the region is approximately 200million people.
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