In her speech, Ruth Mendes stated that Angola has worked hard at the SADC Parliamentary Forum, demonstrating that the country's representation in that forum has been deserved.
Quoted by Novo Jornal, the deputy considered that "the countries that are part of SADC still have many difficulties from the economic and financial point of view, so they align themselves in a logic of promoting development, based on the dynamization of the productive sector and manufacturing industry, without having to wait for finished products that come from western countries, more developed than those in the region".
Admitting that "around 70 per cent of trade in Africa is informal", Ruth Mendes argued that this panorama needs to change.
"One of the main objectives of the Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment Committee of the SADC Parliamentary Forum is to create model laws for the adoption of a paradigm, adapted to the reality of the countries of the region, of promoting the route of development," she said.
The deputy is the current president of the 5th Commission responsible for economic affairs and finance of the National Assembly.
The SADC Parliamentary Forum, created in 1997, is composed of 14 countries: Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Mauritius, Seychelles, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
