Luanda - President João Lourenço, traveled Friday morning to the city of Harare, Zimbabwe, where he will participate in the 44th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), scheduled for Saturday (August 17).
At 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, the Head of State, followed by the Angola's 1st Lady, Ana Dias Lourenço, received farewell greetings from the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança da Costa.
At the SADC summit meeting, the Angolan Head of State will hand over the organization's rotating presidency to his Zimbabwean counterpart, Emmerson Mnagagwa, completing a one-year cycle at the helm of this regional bloc, representing the highest point of the event.
The Summit, whose main speech will be given by President João Lourenço, is preceded by the annual meeting of the Troika of the Body for Cooperation in Politics, Defense and Security.
It will prepare recommendations to be submitted to the organization's Summit of Heads of State and Government.
It is expected that at the Summit, whose theme is “Promoting Innovation to Fully Exploit Opportunities for Sustainable Economic Growth and Development Towards an Industrialized SADC”, SADC States will be able to mark safe and consistent steps towards effective integration and consolidation of Free Trade Zone.
An organization founded 44 years ago, SADC is currently made up of 16 countries with a total of approximately 340 million inhabitants, 10 million square kilometers of area and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD 4,720 per capita.
South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Comoros, eSwatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe are the Member States. VIC/ART/CF/DOJ
