Luanda – President João Lourenço left Friday for Harare city, Zimbabwe, to participate in the 44th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to start Saturday.
At the summit, the Angolan Head of State will hand over the rotating presidency of the body to his Zimbabwean counterpart, Emmerson Mnagagwa, completing a one-year term at the helm of the organization.
The Summit is preceded by the annual meeting of the SADC Troika of the organ, which will prepare recommendations to be submitted to the organization's heads of State and Government.
Other preparatory meetings took place throughout the week, including the SADC Council of Ministers, chaired by the Angolan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Téte António, the Committee of Senior Officials and the SADC Investment Forum and Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA).
During the Summit, whose theme is “Promoting Innovation to Fully Exploit Opportunities for Sustainable Economic Growth and Development towards an Industrialized SADC”, SADC States are expected to mark safe and consistent steps towards effective integration and consolidation of Free Trade Area.
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 4,720 US dollar per capita.
It is made up of South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Comoros, eSwatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. ART/AMP
