The official opening took place on Wednesday. Highlights were statements by newly elected SADC leaders, presentation of prizes for the SADC schools essay competition and the SADC media award winners. The ceremonial handover of the chairpersonship badge from Mauritius to Botswana happened Thursday, as Botswana will assume the chairmanship of SADC for one year. According to the SADC executive secretary Dr Prega Ramsamy, one of the main topics discussed was a motion to drop visa requirements for citizens of all member states. A stay of 90 days per annum would not require a visa anymore in any SADC country.

Economic growth in the SADC region accelerated in 2004 as GDP grew by 4.1 % against the growth rate of 3.2 % in 2003. This rate makes SADC lag only marginally behind the average economic growth rate for Africa of 4.5 % during the same period, according to the SADC head office in Botswana. In 2003, the regional economic growth declined to 2.2% mainly due to the drought situation that affected several countries in the region. The fastest growing economies in SADC during 2004 were Angola (11%), Mozambique (7.8%) and DRC (6.3%) with growth rates, the executive office said in a statement. Botswana and Malawi were also above Africa’s and SADC average growth rates with a GDP of 4.8 % and 4.9 % each. Only Zimbabwe registered a negative GDP growth rate at minus 4.8 %.

The overall increase in GDP growth in the SADC region is attributable to several factors like deepening sound macroeconomic reforms, improved prices for major export commodities and improvements in agricultural production.

Henties Bay Fish Festival

The annual fish festival at Henties Bay will take place on the weekend of 2 to 4 September. Apart from seafood, arts and crafts will be displayed, funs and games are offered to children, and live entertainment will take place in the evenings.

The Bank of Namibia decided to take a neutral stance by leaving its Bank rate unchanged at 7 percent, in line with the South African Reserve Bank, that left its Repo rate unchanged at 7 % at the end of last week. The BoN expects the business community to take advantage of the low level of interest rates to expand economic activities. The current monetary policy stance remained supportive to further capital formation and robust economic activity, the BoN said in a statement. However, the number of livestock marketed, number of vehicles registered, diamonds and base metals production showed a decline in the second quarter of 2005 in relation to the preceding quarter (Januray to March 2005), the BoN noted.. This could signal a slowdown in real economic activities. Annual inflation picked up slightly in June to 1.3 % from 0.9 % in May. Despite this latest development, inflation still remains lower, compared to an annual rate of 2.6 % in February 2005, which is thus far the highest rate recorded in 2005.