President of Angola José Eduardo dos Santos

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"For the first time in its history, Angola will be hosting the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The event is taking place at a time that the People of Angola have great hope with regard to the future, following the achievement of peace which has been long overdue, and will finally pave the way for reconstruction and development of the country.

The peace in Angola is indeed the most remarkable event in Southern Africa since the last SADC Summit held in Blantyre, Malawi, in August 2001, for it brings excellent prospects, not only internally, but also for strengthening, deepening and consolidating multilateral cooperation among SADC Member States.

In considering peace as one of the most valuable assets in the life of People, and a driving force for development, particular reference is also made to the signing of the Peace Accord in Pretoria, South Africa, on 31 July 2002, between the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Rwanda.

We should continue to combine all our efforts so that peace can become a shared value within the SADC family, in order to bring in to the Communit, a cycle of progress, security and wellbeing for all of our People.

In this connection, the Luanda Summit should strengthen the ideals enshrined in the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP), so that together we can face up to the challenges vis à vis poverty, HIV/AIDS and globalization of the world economy and know how. To that effect, we should be able to preserve internal and regional political and social stability.

It is under these circumstances that regional integration will be shaped, on one hand, as a critically important instrument for development and strengthening of economic interdependence of the countries of our Community, and for the promotion of a sustainable growth, and on the other hand, as one of the means of ensuring equitable and efficient participation of our countries in the development of the emerging world economic order.

The achievement of such objectives calls for the conclusion of the restructuring process already underway by our regional Organization for its institutional modernization and consolidation, in order to transform it into a pillar for the strengthening of the African Union and a strategic partner to other economic groups for regional and continental integration.

SADC, therefore, could also provide for a political agenda that allows it to forge common positions at international fora on issues of common interest to each of the member countries.

It is, therefore, with great pleasure that I extend my warm welcome to the distinguished SADC Heads of State and Government and their respective delegations, in the hope that this Summit will come up with decisions that shall contribute considerably to the consolidation of peace and democracy and to the prosperity of our countries."

JOSÉ EDUARDO DOS SANTOS
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ANGOLA