Page 54 - 41st Summit Brochure

In the area of Trade in Services, even The competitiveness of the goods and
though the Protocol has not entered into services produced in SADC for the internal
force, considerable work has been done, with and external markets must prove the
the first phase of negotiations having been comparative advantage of the region in the
concluded. This phase involved 14 Member priority sectors stated in the SADC
States except Angola and Comoros, where Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap. In
services offer in the six priority sectors of this regard, data-collection surveys have
Communication, Construction, Energy, been commissioned and a number of
Financial, Tourism and Transport were regional frameworks, guidelines and
negotiated. databases are being developed in the areas
Although these offers were approved by of science, technology and innovation; non-
the 19th Committee of Ministers on Trade tariff barriers; industrialisation policy; and
(CMT) in Windhoek, Namibia in June in trade.
2019, Phase II of Trade in Services Whilst laying the necessary legislative
negotiations is yet to begin. It will include frameworks, the directorate has also
the remaining six sectors, as the World engaged in personnel capacitation in both
Trade Organization aggregates services into policy implementation and technical
12 sectors. expertise. The Covid-19 pandemic has
Currently, the priority is on Health and moved the modus operandi from physical
Social Related Services, Distribution to virtual meetings and workshops. Surveys
Services (logistics) and Professional that were carried out in the last 12 months
Services. Other sectors being considered are were done through desktop collection and
educational, sporting and recreational, as analysis of primary and secondary data.
well as environmental services. While coming with challenges on the
Services will play a very important role need for technological upgrades for the
in the implementation of the SADC directorate and the stakeholders in Member
Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap. States, the advantage is that the capacity-
The entry into force of the Protocol on building initiatives that have been done
52 Industry will require all these instruments virtually, have attracted greater participation
for realisation of the anticipated outcomes
because of the elimination of the cost of
of the strategy and action plan. The major travelling and accommodation.
achievements in relation to the The Directorate has trained 18 small-
industrialisation of the region has profiled scale farmers from 12 Member States in
close to 40 potential regional value chains, Phytosanitary Compliance principles and
23 of which are in aquatic products. capabilities. This is still to be followed by
To lay a firm foundation for the training in compliance with food safety and
cooperation of SADC Member States on animal heath standards. The compliance to
these identified value chains, there is need standards is assessed by conformity
for industrial policy harmonisation across assessment bodies which consist of
the Member States. In this regard, 139 laboratories, inspections bodies and
industry officers in 13 SADC Member States certification bodies against conformity
were successfully trained on the programme assessment standards namely; ISO/IEC
for Enhancing the Quality of Industrial 17025 (laboratories), ISO/IEC 17020
Policies (EQUIP). This is intended to build (inspectors), ISO/IEC 17021 (certification
the capacities of Member States to develop bodies), respectively. Following the first
sound policies including the ability to phase of the training of 55 laboratory
harmonise their industrial policies, in the personnel done under the REIS
interests of ensuring the seamless operation programme, the trade facilitation
of regional value chains. programme subsequently trained 35
The operationalisation of the regional laboratories, resulting in a 120 laboratory
value chains will be preceded by the capacitated personnel in the 2020/21
formation of the necessary clusters which financial year.
will be accompanied by the establishment of Once the conformity assessment bodies
the necessary institutions that will form the have fully implemented the relevant
cluster into a self-sustainable ecosystem that standards, they further have to be accredited
will be highly productive and reduce to attest to their competence in delivering
unemployment and poverty. conformity assessment services. The SADC