SOUTHERN Africa will call on Wednesday for the world’s rich nations to step up debt relief, and halt arbitrary institutional sales of gold reserves that have clouded the impoverished region’s economic future, said South African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin. Erwin told reporters that the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) 19th annual summit will adopt a resolution urging a managed approach to bullion sales and for more cash to ease foreign debt bills. “Gold sales must be managed in a manner that does not create uncertainty in the market,” he told reporters as SADC’s leaders gathered behind closed doors to address the challenges of conflict and poverty that continue to dog the community’s 14 member states.
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