Luanda  – The Angolan Foreign minister, Georges Chicoty, Wednesday in Luanda said that infrastructures must be seen as a vehicle of regional integration of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

 
The minister was speaking at Luanda’s “4 de Fevereiro” International Airport, where he welcomed the Zimbabwean head of State, Robert Mugabe who arrived on Wednesday evening in the Angolan capital to attend the extraordinary summit of SADC heads of State and Government.
 
 
Georges Chicoty added that the heads of State had recommended a deep reflection on the process of regional integration.

 
“The reflection produced a document that considers that infrastructures must be a vehicle of SADC regional integration, so we can not theoretically integrate spaces, there has to be infrastructures that can help this,” he explained.

 
 
The minister said that the regional organisation’s Indicative Strategic Plan has been revised and there is now a new document that will be evaluated and approved at the Luanda Summit. The Benguela Railway is one of the several other infrastructures.

 
 
“What is there as a philosophy is for this to be there as the support of the very regional integration, which was not necessarily the priority of the previous Indicative Plan that prioritised integration of spaces, created a common market without the basis on which this integration would be based,” the Angolan Foreign minister explained.

 
To the minister, only spaces that can get inter-connected can easily reach integration, which makes this new plan more complete.

 
Asked weather integration ceased to be a priority, Georges Chicoty said the region will continue its process of integration within its possibilities, but the process should be accelerated considering all aspects that had not been taken into account for a true integration.

Angola is hosting Thursday in its capital an extraordinary summit of heads of State of the Southern Africa Development Community.