SADC experts adopt report for Kinshasa summit

KINSHASA, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) -- Experts for the 29th summit of the South African Development Community (SADC) in Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on Friday adopted a report to be submitted first to the council of foreign ministers and then to the heads of state and governments, according to organizers. "We are at the preparatory stages for the heads of state summit. The first level of the summit is the meeting of experts who come together for some days proposed by the executive secretariat of SADC, to discuss and propose solutions to the different agendas that the organization would wish to tackle," said Seraphine Ngwej, one of the Congolese experts. These consultations and cogitations of the experts are sanctioned by a definitive report which is then compiled by the executive secretariat and submitted to the meeting of the council of foreign ministers of SADC. The council of ministers will then try to consolidate and adjust some aspects while making recommendations. The summit of heads of state will then take decisions on the suggestions, Ngwej added. During their meeting, which was opened on Wednesday, the SADC experts worked on a document which comprises reports of the security problems in the east of the DRC, the evolving political situation in some member countries -- notably Madagascar, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa -- and on the economic issue linked to the international financial crisis, the creation of a free trade zone and the establishment of a single currency. Created in 1980 by nine countries, the SADC now has 15 member states, including Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Namibia, Mauritius, the DRC, Madagascar, Seychelles and Zambia.