The European Union has made €47 million available for a period of five years to fund programmes aimed at increasing trade and investment in the SADC. The project tackles two main types of challenges experienced by the region. They are the high cost of trading between the countries due to transport delays at the borders as a result of poor trade facilitation, and adding value to locally produced commodities for the global export markets. Exports from the SADC to the EU and other markets consist mainly of commodities and unprocessed products, creating few employment opportunities, according to a joint statement. The three programmes are: Support to Improving the Investment and Business Environment (SIBE); Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP), and Support to Industrialisation and Productive Sectors (SIPS). All three will increase the flow of goods in the region if they are successful. The SIBE programme aims to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth and job creation through the transformation of the region into a SADC investment zone. It will promote intraregional investment and foreign direct investment for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular. The EU-SADC TFP will focus on establishing common standards for quality assurance, accreditation and metrology (SQ AM) in order to increase regional economic integration. The SIPS programme aims to contribute to the SADC industrialisation agenda by improving the performance and growth of selected regional value chains and related services within the agro-processing and pharmaceutical sectors.