Stability, integration and food security, among other things, have been identified as the priority areas for the Southern African region to address.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) would focus on five priority areas of development, said the regional bloc's Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao on Wednesday after the SADC council of ministers meeting.

The first priority area is peace, political stability and security.

"It is the prerequisite for us to address our main challenges: underdevelopment and poverty," Salomao said, adding that SADC was increasingly becoming a region of stability and security where democratic elections had become a regular part.

The second priority is to continue liberalizing trade between member countries, which is the basic step for achieving integration targets, namely a free-trade area by 2008, a customs union by 2010, a common market by 2015, a monetary union by 2016 and a single currency by 2018.

Infrastructure development has been identified as the third priority, which includes transport networks, water resources management and the problem of energy shortage.

The fourth priority is the life of people, including food security and HIV/AIDS issues.

"We have land, we have water and, most important, we have people," he said, "we can't continue to beg for food."

He listed skills development as the fifth priority, which included science and technology, human development and capacity building on national and regional level.

The council of ministers meeting has prepared reports and recommendations for adoption at the bloc's summit scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

Source: Xinhua