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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 09 2012 09:02 | LAST UPDATED Feb 09 2012 09:02 |
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President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday urged closer cooperation between South Africa and Zambia in fighting poverty, disease and unemployment. "The difficult years of fighting colonialism and apartheid together must now translate into a successful joint quest for economic freedom and social development," he said in the Zambian capital, Lusaka. "Our shared history must encourage us to work together to fight poverty, disease, and ensure that our people have decent jobs and a better quality of life. "Our two business sectors must work as closely as the two governments will now work together, to ensure that we increase economic cooperation and trade," he said. Zuma is on a three-day state visit to Zambia, accompanied by several Cabinet ministers and a business delegation representing 60 companies in the energy and petroleum, ICT, infrastructure, financial-services, healthcare, mining and agro-processing sectors. He said South Africa and Zambia had already registered important progress in strengthening bilateral economic cooperation. Trade between the two countries had substantially increased since 1994 and Zambia was now South Africa's number one trading partner on the continent. Major South African exports to Zambia included mineral oils and fuels, vehicles and components, chemicals, steel and capital equipment. "We should also continue to work together to strengthen people-to-people contact through cultural, scientific and educational exchange programmes as well as encouraging two-way tourism." Zuma said the operationalisation of the South Africa-Zambia joint permanent commission for cooperation, signed in 2005, would provide the required momentum in implementing bilateral agreements.  CONTINUES BELOW "To this end, we trust that our ministers will ensure that the joint commission is inaugurated next year." South Africa was committed to working closely with Zambia to address developmental challenges facing the continent. "We are very proud of the role that Zambia, as an active member of the African Union and Southern African Development Community (SADC), is playing in advancing democracy on the continent. "We also need to work together and within SADC to contribute as much as we can to the resolution of matters such as that of Zimbabwe and Madagascar in our region. "We all remain seized with these matters as we are determined to ensure that there is no part of SADC that remains in conflict or instability of any kind. "We are closely monitoring the discussions by the signatories to the Global Political Agreement in Zimbabwe. "We will continue to work with our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe in their quest to find a lasting solution," he said. -- Sapa TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
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