Adhesion to SADC free trade zone postponed
Southern Africa: Adhesion to SADC Free Trade Zone Postponed
Angola Press Agency (Luanda)
November 21, 2006
Luanda
Angola is not yet prepared to join the free trade zone in the year 2008, under the process of regional integration of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC),said Tuesday in Luanda the Planning minister, Ana Dias Lourenço.
According to the minister, Angola is still lacking internal and external infrastructures that enable its connection with the region, aggravated by the incipient state of development of its economy, severely destroyed by a long lasted war.
Ana Dias Lourenco was answering questions raised by members of the National Assembly (Angolan parliament) who wanted to know whether or not the country was prepared to join SADC free trade zone in 2008.
The parliament session was discussing the Government General Programme for the 2007/2008.
The MPs with the 5th commission (Economy and Finance) held today a speciality debate, during a session attended by the ministers of Planning, Industry, Agriculture, Transports, Finance, Commerce, Public Works and Fisheries.
"The integration can pose a threat or an opportunity and we have to analyse at each moment the actions that we will have to develop in order for us to be able to enter the free trade zone and benefit from this process in a balanced way, thus permitting the development of the economy in a competitive way," she stressed.
