Private sector agrees to SADC regional committee

The primary result of the
recent Southern African
Development Community
(SADC) private sector
meeting in Gaborone was
the rejection of the idea of
a Private Sector Council
being formed within the
SADC organisation, as had
been recommended at earlier
meetings, according to
information released to FTW
by Barney Curtis, executive
officer of the Federation of
East and Southern African
Road Transport Associations
(Fesarta).
The meeting was designed
to agree on how the private
sector regional associations
could best interact with SADC
because some did not have
good working relationships
with the body, although Curtis
assured FTW that this was not
the case with Fesarta.
The members cast aside the
idea of the council as being
too costly. It also decided that
a more appropriate answer
was a steering committee
comprising the regional
private sector associations.
The members agreed
that this should be set up.
Oswell Binha, president of
the Association of SADC
Chambers of Commerce and
Industry (Asci), agreed to
be the interim chairman of
the committee until the next
meeting. This will formally
constitute the committee,
and is due to be held in either
Harare or Johannesburg on
June 10-14.
It was then proposed that
the chairman should have a
person in one of his company
offices, and an administrator
for the committee would be
appointed to staff that office.
This administrator would
be funded by contributions
from members, with initial
support from the German
donor agency, GIZ, which
also organised and funded the
Gaborone indaba.
GIZ was tasked with
drawing up a draft letter of
intent covering the decisions
taken at the meeting, which
was to be circulated to
members to give input. The
members are then to sign the
finalised letter of intent.