The common market area for SADC member countries will only kick off in 2012 instead of 2008. The plan to have all 13 member states sign the free trade agreement by 2008, a customs union protocol in 2010 and a common market pact in 2012, the SADC Executive Secretary Prega Ramsamy said this week. The SADC secretariat in based in Gaborone, Botswana. The SADC ministerial council meeting will take place at Arusha, Tanzania on Friday. Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa will on Friday officially launch the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), a programme on development and economic reform in the region. Mkapa is the chairman of the 13 SADC members, after Seychelles pulled out.