The also President of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo), Félix Tshisekedi, who was speaking at the 43rd ordinary summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in Luanda, referred that the theme of the next presidency must "accelerate" regional industrialization.
"I am convinced that the theme of the next exercise that will be adopted during this summit will allow us to continue to advance the industrialization agenda by putting forward the human and financial capital of our region", he said.
The Congolese head of state recalled one of the interventions of the first Angolan President, António Agostinho Neto, also one of the founders of SADC, who said that "agriculture is the base and industry the decisive factor of progress", as a motivating factor for the effective industrialization of the region.
"Thus, it is not necessary to remind that an industrialized SADC will overcome the challenges and create decent jobs for our people and, ultimately, will reduce poverty", he highlighted.
"It is for this reason that our region must continue on this trajectory, taking advantage of its vast natural resources, exploiting them for manufacturing, exporting finished products in accordance with the industrialization strategy and the roadmap adopted nine years ago", he noted.
This summit, which brings together the Heads of State and Government of the 16 member countries of SADC, takes place under the motto "Human and Financial Capital: The Main Factors for the Sustainable Industrialization of the SADC Region".
Tshisekedi, who was speaking after handing over the badge of SADC president to Angolan President João Lourenço, now the new president of the regional bloc for the 2023-2024 period, also noted the "important events" during his 12-month term.
He referred to having had the support of the entire community, in the exercise of his functions, considering that the industrial development action in the region "is not dissociated from the market integration segment".
He highlighted the enormous commercial potential of the region and inter-regional, the growth of the bloc's countries, with a population of 360 million inhabitants, mostly young people, "where great opportunities for economic development are offered".
"I am pleased to see that our region has achieved improvements in connectivity thanks to mobile phone penetration of 45 percent, as well as Internet penetration at 53 percent and 3G mobile network coverage of 84 percent," he noted.
The outgoing president of SADC also noted that during his presidency, the SADC electronic certificate was launched in September 2022 and in this period the region also recorded "great advances" in terms of financial integration.
At least more than two million regular transactions were registered in the regional financial system, he said.
The recent signing of the agreement between Angola, Zambia and DRCongo for the exploration of the Lobito corridor, Benguela province, was also highlighted, as it will make it possible to accelerate internal and cross-border trade.
